France qualified for the World Cup quarterfinals after a hard-fought victory against Paraguay on Saturday night in Philadelphia. Les Bleus prevailed 1-0 in a tight, closely contested, and often uncomfortable round of 16 match. Kylian Mbappé scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot. That goal was enough to send France through to the next round, where they will face Morocco.
Mbappé: "We also know how to play dirty football"
After the match, the French captain emphasized Les Bleus' ability to adapt to a physical game, far removed from the image of a team solely focused on attacking football: "We knew what kind of match we were going to have. I think that today, the match we had, the way we played it, was very good. We showed that 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, excuse the expression. We have no problem with that."
They 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 today, 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 at us that way, but we got at them that way.
We're moving on to the next stage; we need to recover and focus on Morocco. Achraf Hakimi? I think he's already written to me. We're going to concentrate, we're going to play, we know they're a very good team, and we're very happy to be playing against them. We're going to give our best to continue our journey.
Next match Thursday at 22pm and the quarter-final against Morocco, to be followed on M6 and beIN Sports.
