France vs Paraguay ends in chaos as pundits explode after 'disgraceful' scenes

France vs Paraguay ends in chaos as pundits explode after 'disgraceful' scenes France defeated Paraguay in an ill-tempered World Cup clash to confirm their place in the quarter-finals of the tournament after a match that threatened to boil over on more than one occasion France's celebrations were almost marred by unsavoury scenes following their World Cup win over Paraguay. The South American side expressed their anger after being knocked out of the competition, directing their fury at the officials and Les Bleus as tensions boiled over in roasting Philadelphia. Kylian Mbappe's penalty separated the sides in a match that had been niggly. Paraguay escaped bookings but looked to disrupt player with aggressive challenges to the frustration of the France team. That attitude continued at the full-time whistle and Paraguay's Gustavo Velazquez had to be separated from opposition players. Mbappe had already blanked goalkeeper Orlando Gill to celebrate and roared "Vamos!" to the crowd. The players had to be broken up twice earlier in the clash. In the 35th minute, the teams were separated following a foul on Mbappe, which resulted in the French star pushing his opponent. Tempers also flared during the hydration break in the second period as players barged together on the way to their dugouts. Analysing the match, BBC pundit Joe Hart was disgusted by the behaviour of Paraguay's players throughout the match, and impressed that Mbappe was able to keep his cool after being niggled at throughout the game. Get the latest World Cup news straight to your inbox by signing up to our Make Football Great Again newsletter now! "I absolutely love how [Mbappe] he's behaved in this game, because they have come for him from minute one," he said. "And towards the end when he was just laughing at the Paraguayan players, that is... He's allowed to be arrogant because he is brilliant, but the Paraguayan players were an absolute disgrace tonight. "If they were on my team I'd be dragging half of them off the pitch. I would never want to win that way, I would never want to play football that way and the referee didn't help in any of the circumstances. "The fact that not one Paraguayan was booked inside the 90 minutes today is absolutely astonishing. Fair play to France, you can see what it means. Sometimes you can play beautiful football, pass people off the park - but when you grind out a win as a team and get that win as they did tonight? Superb." Thomas Hitzlsperger added: "If had a lot of respect for them going into the game. I'm glad my vocabulary in English is not that good because Joe just said 'disgraceful' - I've got various other words I would use for them in German but I don't have them in English. "Because I have little to no respect anymore for this Paraguay team; the way they behaved on the penalty incident. If you're from Paraguay, you probably like that team: they're like warriors. If you're a supporter of the French team or neutral, you can't have any respect anymore for the way they behaved. "This is not just disgraceful, this is even worse. That's why I totally agree, the way Kylian Mbappe and the entire team have controlled themselves - that they don't walk off the pitch injured, to me is almost a miracle. And the referee, to finish this off - it's probably the worst performance I've seen in this tournament." On Fox, Thierry Henry declared: "Football won. I don't want to talk about Paraguay." Former Scotland and Chelsea star Pat Nevin defended Paraguay, however. He did not believe they crossed the line. "If this game had been played the way it was played three or four years ago, there would have been about 19 bookings," he said on BBC Radio 5 Live. "But this World Cup has had a different bar for the bookings, for the fouls. I would rather see a game like this where you see the personalities. "In the midst of it all, for all the niggly things you were getting from the Paraguay players, was there anything vicious or evil? Not really. We don't want to see that in the game and we didn't see it today." France will take on Morocco for a place in the World Cup semi-final following their win. The African side dispatched Canada earlier on Saturday in a 3-0 victory thanks to a Azzedine Ounahi brace and Soufiane Rahimi goal. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Sky is knocking 20% off its entire range of Glass TVs to mark the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Until June 17, shoppers can upgrade to the Sky smart TV that's 'designed for football' from £4.50 per month when taken alongside a Sky TV and Netflix package.