3 min readPhiladelphiaJul 5, 2026 08:24 PM IST
First published on: Jul 5, 2026 at 07:30 AM IST
France manager Didier Deschamps said he feared his star forward Kylian Mbappe would get injured in the acrimonious game against Paraguay. The Paraguayan men were tackling him so crudely that he stumbled numerous times. So he asked two of the biggest teammates to guard him. “I asked the two biggest lads to go and stand around Kylian at the end because they were going to chop him down,” Deschamps said.
So the burly defender Dayot Upamecano was pushed upfront in the dying minutes so that he could bear the hacks aimed at Mbappe. He performed his mission commendably, even without copping a yellow card. On the other side, midfielder Adrien Rabiot, never one to shirk away from a challenge, would fiercely guard Mbappe, who was dragged off his feet multiple times.
France kept their composure. But it was difficult, he said. “It wasn’t easy. They used every resource possible. It is maybe not the kind of football that brings people to the stadium, playing with that aggression, exaggerating everything,” he said.
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He refused to criticise the referee, who did not brandish a single card at any Paraguayan player. “I am not going to criticise the referee, but we finished the game with three bookings, and yet there were a lot of things going on. We stayed focused on our game. It was difficult; they had lots of men behind the ball, and they defended well,” Deschamps said in his post-match press conference.
He abstained from critiquing Paraguay’s tactics as well. ”I won’t criticise Paraguay. Every team can play however they want, but I could do without the insults. The most important thing is that there were no incidents at the end. But all that matters is that we have qualified,” he said.
The experience, he asserted, would help his side. “This experience will help us. After all, we have a lot of players who are playing at their first World Cup. I wouldn’t say it had been easy for us up to now, but now we have had a different type of game,” he said.
The focus now is on recovery in time for the quarter-final clash against Morocco on July 9 in Boston. “Morocco are one of the best teams. We played them four years ago in Doha, and they also got to the Africa Cup of Nations final. We have a few days now to recuperate. We have some tired players and a few little knocks too,” he said.
France's Kylian Mbappe grimaces in pain after being tackled during the World Cup round of 16 match vs Paraguay in Philadelphia. (AP) 
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