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Kylian Mbappe says France “know how to play dirty football” following their 1-0 victory over Paraguay in the World Cup Round of 16, with the forward claiming the South Americans thought Les Blues were going to “play in tuxedos”.
Mbappe converted a 70th-minute penalty to bag his seventh goal of the tournament and send France to the last eight of the competition after what was a closely-fought affair in Philadelphia.
Paraguay, who knocked out Germany on penalties in their first knockout-stage match of the finals, looked seemingly intent on making the contest as scrappy as possible, with a series of cynical-looking fouls designed to rattle their European opponents.
However, Mbappe and co. came through largely unscathed to set up an intriguing clash with Morocco in Boston on Thursday.
Speaking after the game, the France captain said he knew exactly what kind of game his country were in for and were able to show another side to their game.
“We knew what kind of match we were going to have,” the Real Madrid player said.
“We showed we’re not just a team that knows how to play attacking football. If we have to get our hands dirty, we’ll get our hands dirty, [if you’ll] excuse the expression.
“We have no problem with that. They [Paraguay] thought we were going to come and play in tuxedos, that we were just going to show off with fancy moves and one-twos. We know how to play dirty football too.
“We did it, we won and, even then, we were better than them. That’s their football, that’s their way of playing. Everyone plays with what they have; there’s no right or wrong way to play football, there’s only one way: to win. They tried to get us that way, but we got them that way too.”
Meanwhile, Desire Doue, who won the spot-kick for France after being clipped by Diego Gomez in the box, insisted the experience would only benefit the team later in the tournament.
He said: “It was a very intense match with lots of duels.
“We had to stay calm and we managed to do that, even if we did get carried away at times. That’s where we need to improve, but we were efficient and we scored, and that’s the most important thing.
“There was a lot of rough play, a lot of provocation, but you have to ignore all that. [The experience] will help us in the upcoming matches.”