It wasn’t pretty, but it counted: France is moving on to the World Cup quarterfinals after defeating Paraguay 1-0 in the Round of 16 on Saturday. France controlled 76% of the possession, and had significantly more shots than Paraguay, but will settle for a single-goal win to advance.
The sole goal for Les Bleus came off a penalty kick from Kylian Mbappé scored in the 70th minute. Mbappé leaned just enough to the left to trick goalkeeper Orlando Gill into diving the wrong direction, before calmly slotting the ball into the right back corner of the net.
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The goal is Mbappé’s seventh of the tournament and gives him a slight edge over Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race.
Paraguay, who snuck into the Round of 16 after a penalty shootout win over Germany, is a team notorious for frustrating opponents through rock-solid defense and other antics. Heading into this game, La Albirroja’s strategy was clear: Defend as much as possible, and hold on until extra time and penalties.
And it largely worked. It took France more than 20 minutes to record its first shot, and throughout the game, Paraguay’s five-back formation managed to hold France to 15 shots (five on target) and no goals scored in the run of play. The defense held strong, and Gill, who was the team’s hero against Germany, did the rest.
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Beyond the missed shots, another piece of Les Bleus’ frustration was the fouls: Paraguay successfully got under France’s skin throughout the game, and was rewarded for embellishments with some poor calls from the referee. A yellow card on Michael Olise in stoppage time, for example, came after some pretty clear simulation from Matías Galarza that was missed by the officials; that card could have implications goin forward, as Olise could miss games if he picks up any more yellows.
Paraguay’s wily World Cup run comes to an end after the second round. But France, a favorite to win it all, will move on to the next round. Les Bleus will face Morocco, which is coming off a dominant victory over Canada earlier on Saturday.
