Mbappe penalty downs Paraguay but Barcola & Olise underwhelm

France ratings Paraguay GFX

Kylian Mbappe scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot as France progressed to the quarter-finals of the World Cup with a laboured 1-0 win over Paraguay on Saturday evening. The South Americans, who upset Germany in the previous round, were always expected to be awkward opponents for the tournament favourites but it was nonetheless surprising just how much Didier Deschamps' stellar forward line struggled to create chances in Philadelphia.

France created next to nothing in the first half and they only made the breakthrough in the 70th minute thanks to a rash challenge from Diego Gomez, who took down Desire Doue in the area. Despite being served of quality of service up until that point, Mbappe coolly converted the penalty to belatedly break Paraguay's resistance.

Gustavo Alfaro's well-drilled side tried to come out of their shell a bit in the final 20 minutes of the game but they never looked remotely like equalising. Below, GOAL ranks all of the France players on show as Didier Deschamps' men set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with Morocco...

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Goalkeeper & Defence

Mike Maignan (6/10):

The AC Milan goalkeeper had to be alert to deal with a couple of crosses into the area but he was untroubled for the most part.

Jules Kounde (6/10):

Didn't have much to do defensively, meaning he was able to get forward a lot.

Dayot Upamecano (6/10):

The few times that Paraguay ventured forward, the Bayern Munich centre-back showed off his impressive strength to snuff out any danger.

William Saliba (6/10):

A pretty straightforward evening for the Arsenal defender. Even when he was called into action, his pace ensured he was never put under any real pressure.

Lucas Digne (6/10):

Didn't really offer much going forward but hard to fault him defensively.

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Midfield

Manu Kone (7/10):

Despite picking up a booking for a poor tackle, he was one of France's better performers and responsible for one of France's best efforts on goal but his well-struck shot from distance was tipped over by Orlando Gill.

Adrien Rabiot (5/10):

Put himself about and took a couple of heavy hits for that every reason - but this was one of those games where people question what he brings to the team.

Paraguay v France: Round of 16 - FIFA World Cup 2026

Attack

Ousmane Dembele (5/10):

Whipped over a couple of decent crosses but the Ballon d'Or winner was nowhere near his usual level.

Michael Olise (4/10):

A really disappointing display from the Bayern Munich ace, who created one chance all game - and even that was in injury time when Paraguay were starting to push forward.

Bradley Barcola (4/10):

Looked dangerous on a couple of occasions but the Paris Saint-Germain winger was pretty quiet for the most part. Unsurprisingly replaced by his club-mate Desire Doue just after the hour mark.

Kylian Mbappe (7/10):

A relatively quiet game by his standards until he broke the deadlock with the minimum of fuss and will probably feel he should have scored again in the dying seconds. Still, he's back level with Lionel Messi on seven goals in the race for the Golden Boot.

Paraguay v France: Round of 16 - FIFA World Cup 2026

Subs & Manager

Desire Doue (7/10):

Came on in the 61st minute and won a penalty just five minutes later. Will now be optimistic about his hopes of starting ahead of Barcola against Morocco.

Rayan Cherki (N/A):

Replaced Dembele with less than five minutes of normal time remaining.

Didier Deschamps (6/10):

Will be a little disappointed with his side's lack of cutting edge but breaking down Paraguay was never going to be easy. Deschamps will doubtless just be happy to avoided this potential banana skin but France will need to be back at their best for Morocco...