FIFA World Cup: Mbappe slams Paraguay's rough tactics: 'We have no issue getting our hands dirty'

Paraguay tried everything. They fouled, they provoked, they wasted time, they threw elbows, and at one point a defender booted the ball into the second tier of the stadium just to slow things down.

And at the end of it all, Kylian Mbappe scored the only goal, walked straight past goalkeeper Orlando Gill's outstretched hand, and let his boots do the talking.France beat Paraguay 1-0 in a fiery, feisty, sweltering Round of 16 clash at Philadelphia Stadium on Sunday, reaching the quarter-finals for the fourth consecutive World Cup. And the man of the moment was in no mood to apologise for how they did it.

"We knew what kind of game we were going to get," Mbappe said after the match.

"We showed that we are not just a team that can play attacking football. If we have to get our hands dirty, we will get our hands dirty. We have no issue with that."Paraguay used every trick in the book, with Mbappe noting it was not necessarily the kind of football people enjoy watching, but France stayed focused, which was not easy to do.The goal came in the 70th minute when Paraguay's Diego Gomez brought down substitute Desire Doué inside the penalty area.

After a lengthy VAR review, referee Ilgiz Tantashev pointed to the spot. Mbappr stepped up, sent Gill the wrong way, and France had their winner.The goal was Mbappe's seventh of the tournament, drawing him level with Argentina's Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race. It also makes him just the second player alongside Messi to score seven or more goals at two different World Cups, with both doing so in 2022 and 2026.Mbappé is now the only player to score at least three goals in the knockout stage of three separate World Cups.

The numbers are staggering. The timing, as always, is impeccable.The heat in Philadelphia was brutal. Both sides exchanged fouls and angry words throughout a first half with just five shots combined and a combined xG of 0.20. France's vaunted attacking quartet of Mbappé, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola were stifled and starved of space. Tempers flared repeatedly, with Matías Galarza elbowing Mbappe to the ground at one stage.Mbappe, who frequently trash-talked the Paraguayans in Spanish throughout the match, kept his cool when it mattered most. That composure, more than anything else, was the difference between the two sides.France now face Morocco in Boston on Thursday in a quarter-final that promises everything the Paraguay match withheld. For Mbappé and Les Bleus, the mission is simple, keep winning, by whatever means necessary.