Juan Carlos Maygua
France and Paraguay closed out the Philadelphia slate with a round of 16 matchup that looked simple on paper and turned into something much more uncomfortable for the French.
Paraguay arrived as the underdog, but not as a team just happy to be there. After a historic win over Germany and a 16-year absence from the World Cup, Gustavo Alfaro’s group came in with a plan: sit deep, frustrate France, and make Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, and Michael Olise play through bodies instead of open grass.
For a long time, it worked. Paraguay gave France possession, protected the middle, and asked Julio Enciso and Miguel Almiron to turn every loose ball into a counter. It was not pretty all the time, but it was stubborn, and stubborn was enough to keep France from getting comfortable.
Paraguay made France grind for everything
Matias Galarza, Orlando Gill, Almiron, and Enciso gave Paraguay the shape and energy they needed to stay alive. France tried to slide passes between the lines, but Junior Alonso and Jose Caceres kept stepping into the right spots, cutting off angles, and making the match feel heavier than France wanted.
The second half brought more urgency from France, especially through Olise, Dembele, and Mbappe. Paraguay responded with two-man pressure in wide areas and enough physicality to turn the match into a grind. That came with a cost, though. Enciso had to come off around the hour mark with muscle fatigue, and Almiron followed soon after.
Even then, Paraguay kept hanging around. Bradley Barcola was taken off in the 60th minute after a quiet match, which said plenty about how difficult Paraguay made the day for France’s front line.
Mbappe finally broke Paraguay
The match finally cracked in the 70th minute. Desire Doue was fouled inside the box, and after a VAR check, France had the penalty it had been searching for. Mbappe stepped up with Paraguay trying to drag the moment out, then buried it anyway.
That goal gave France the lead and pushed Mbappe to seven goals in the tournament, making him the World Cup’s leading scorer. It was exactly the kind of moment France needed from its captain: one clean strike in a match where almost nothing had been clean.
Paraguay did not fold after the goal. If anything, they played with more bite. Alfaro kept pushing from the sideline, and goalkeeper Orlando Gill made two excellent saves on Mbappe to keep the score within reach. Paraguay just never found the final ball or the finish to drag France into real danger.
Paraguay leaves the World Cup with a loss, but also with the kind of fight that made their run feel real. After so many years away from the tournament, they gave France a far tougher match than the scoreline suggested.
France now moves on to the quarterfinals, where Morocco waits on Thursday. The performance was not their cleanest, but knockout soccer does not care much about style points. France survived the ugly version of this match, and Mbappe made sure Paraguay’s dream ended in Philadelphia.
