Sometimes “The Beautiful Game” can get ugly.
Such was the case Saturday evening during France’s 1-0 round-of-16 victory over Paraguay to reach the quarterfinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Superstar striker Kylian Mbappé scored a penalty shot in the 70th minute that stood as the game’s lone goal.
Mbappé was given the opportunity to shoot unimpeded after Paraguay’s Diego Gomez was called for tripping after a video review.
That rough play was the only crack in what, otherwise, was an impenetrable Paraguay defence, as the South American side appeared to employing a purposefully conservative game plan, often making borderline plays trying to get under the skin of a French side that came into Saturday’s match having scored a tournament-leading 13 goals.
The constant provocation from Paraguay ultimately didn’t work, but after the match, Mbappé had choice words for how things shook out on the pitch.
“We show Paraguay that if they want to play dirty, we can also play dirty,” Mbappé said.
This was one of a number of fiery quotes from Mbappé that Italian soccer journalist Fabrizio Romano collected.
France will play Morocco, who defeated Canada 3-0 earlier on Saturday in their round-of-16 match, in the quarterfinals on Thursday.