With an old-school catenaccio, Paraguay undermined France's attacking mechanisms , saturated the spaces, and prevented their opponents from putting on the spectacle they had produced in previous matches.
But Deschamps has a bench he can count on and halfway through the second half a flash of brilliance from the new arrival Doué is enough to give the match a boost: a series of lightning-fast dribbles is stopped by a penalty, which Mbappé converts from the spot, wrong-footing Gill and joining Messi at 7 in the World Cup scoring charts .
A 1-0 win without any fireworks is therefore enough to reach the quarter-finals, where the Bleus will now face Morocco , in a repeat of the 2022 World Cup semi-final in Qatar, with the North Africans looking for revenge.
In a red-hot Philadelphia, Deschamps confirmed his 4-2-3-1 formation, replacing the injured Tchouaméni with Manu Koné and Digne still preferred to Theo Hernandez. Alfaro, on the other hand, covered with a 5-4-1 formation, with a very low block that immediately positioned itself to await France: center forward Enciso defended all the way to the edge of the penalty area.
And it worked, because until the hydration break—more necessary than ever in the scorching heat of Philadelphia—only a long-range shot from Kone threatened Paraguay's goal. In the 31st minute, the biggest chance came with Mbappé's missed header from a cross from the right . The number 10 showed some nerves a few minutes later, reacting to the provocations (which would increase in the second half) from Diego Gomez and his teammates. In the 36th minute, Gill made his first save from a corner on Koundé, but the Bleus were unable to make an impact.
In the 5th minute of the second half, Paraguay broke forward and the ball reached Maignan, who immediately sent Mbappé on a counterattack in open play: Caceres recovered the Frenchman, saving the first big goal-scoring opportunity. Shortly after, Kone tried again from outside the box and was saved by Gill. The South Americans were less compact, and Alfaro made two substitutions, partly due to physical problems: Canale and Caballero came on, while France took off Barcola for Doué . It was the perfect tool to break through the defense. The 2005-born player entered the field in a sluggish manner, weaved into the box, and after missing a couple of passes, Diego Gomez brought him down : the Uzbek referee Tantashev let play continue, but the VAR called for a penalty. Mbappé stepped up to the spot and sent the keeper the wrong way. It was the 25th minute and France was finally ahead.
Paraguay finally introduced some attacking players, but without becoming too dangerous. Deschamps made no further changes until the 39th minute, when Dembelé came off and Cherki came on. Mauricio had a go in the 45th minute with a shot from the edge of the box that Maignan had no problem with, then in the 51st minute a French counterattack was stopped by Gill's double miracle save on the usual Mbappé .
In the final minutes, there was only room for Galarza's last-gasp provocations, with France never threatening and enjoying a heavy victory, because it's never easy to dislodge such entrenched teams, especially when the games start to matter.
(Unioneonline)
