Mbappé and France ditch ‘tuxedos’ to play ‘dirty football’ and beat Paraguay

On this occasion, France kept the champagne football on ice. Which was probably just as well, given the temperature. As Philadelphia broiled in an Independence Day heatwave, the World Cup favourites were forced to drop a gear or two but still had too much for a Paraguay team that set out for a fight but were ultimately no more than a nuisance.

In the annals of France-Paraguay encounters this was more France 98, a 1-0 French victory in extra time, than Sweden 58, where Just Fontaine embellished his World Cup legend with a hat-trick. Les Bleus’ modern-day goal machine, Kylian Mbappé, had to make do with just the one, a penalty, to draw him level again with Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race, but one behind the great man in terms of the all-time goalscoring record.

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