Key Points
- France beat Paraguay 1-0 in the World Cup Round of 16 on July 4 in Philadelphia.
- Kylian Mbappé scored from a VAR-awarded penalty in the 70th minute.
- The goal ties Mbappé with Lionel Messi for the Golden Boot lead at seven.
- France meet Morocco in the quarterfinals on July 9 in Boston.
France are through to the quarterfinals of the 2026 World Cup, and only just. Les Bleus beat Paraguay 1-0 in the Round of 16 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, an ugly, physical game decided by a single Kylian Mbappé penalty after VAR intervened.
The moment came in the 70th minute. Substitute Désiré Doué drove into the box and was clipped by Paraguay's Diego Gómez; referee Ilgiz Tantashev waved play on before VAR sent him to the monitor and he pointed to the spot. Mbappé did the rest — his seventh goal of the tournament, drawing him level with Lionel Messi for the Golden Boot lead. Paraguay, who had already stunned four-time champion Germany on penalties to reach this stage, went home on the thinnest of margins.
The scoreline flatters neither side. France dominated the ball and created little; Paraguay defended in numbers and clipped at Mbappé every time he touched it, at one point tangling with Andrés Cubas in a shoving match that gave the free-kick back the other way. The winning goal was the only clean chance the referee, and the technology, could not talk themselves out of.
The read is what comes next. France's tune-up over Sweden in the group stage — Mbappé setting a knockout record — was the version of this team the market has been buying. Saturday was a survival job, and the reward is a heavyweight quarterfinal: Morocco, who dispatched co-hosts Canada 3-0 earlier the same day, arrive in Boston on Thursday as the first African side into back-to-back World Cup quarterfinals. France's talent versus Morocco's momentum is the tie of the round, and after 90 minutes like this, Les Bleus will need to look far more like themselves to survive it.
Update (July 9): France did survive, beating Morocco 2-0 to reach the semifinals behind a Mbappé goal and an Ousmane Dembélé strike.
Source: ESPN, CBS Sports, Sky Sports.
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