In the last 2026 World Cup match in Philadelphia, Paraguay played a style that has been seen many times before at the city\u2019s football stadium.<\/p>\n
La Albirroja’s physical approach in their 1-0 loss to France in the Round of 16 looked more like what might be seen on a Sunday in the fall from the NFL\u2019s Philadelphia Eagles, who play their home games at Lincoln Financial Field.<\/p>\n
Eagles coach Nick Siranni might have liked what he saw. Les Bleus sure didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
“I had never played a match like this, with so many hits,” France midfielder Manu Kon\u00e9 said. “I mean, cheap shots, shoves in the back. So, yes, it was complicated.”<\/p>\n
Paraguay seemed to target star forward Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, who converted a penalty kick in the 70th minute.<\/p>\n
Andr\u00e9s Cubas grabbed Mbapp\u00e9 in the offensive third, resulting in mass confrontation in the 35th minute. Later in the first half, Matias Galarza made contact with Mbapp\u00e9 off the ball, sending him sprawling to the turf. And in the 77th minute, Juan Jos\u00e9 C\u00e1ceres kicked the France forward in the right shin. None of these fouls resulted in yellow cards.<\/p>\n
In fact, France received the only three yellow cards issued during the match. Paraguay got one after the final whistle for dissent toward the referee.<\/p>\n
Paraguay\u2019s tactics came as no surprise to its opponent.<\/p>\n
“We knew what kind of match it was going to be,” Mbapp\u00e9 said. “We can also get our hands dirty. We know how to do it. We know how to play ugly football. Guess they were thinking we were going to show up in tuxedos, but we were ready. Even at that kind of game, we were better than them.”<\/p>\n
(Photo by Ulrik Pedersen\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Things remained heated \u2014 both figuratively and literally, with the game played in scorching temperatures \u2014 after the match. Players from both sides converged near the center circle, and Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill threw a ball at Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s back.<\/p>\n “I tried to shake his hand, but since he didn\u2019t pay me any attention, I lost my temper,” Gill said.<\/p>\n Tempers weren\u2019t exactly under control during the match, either. La Albirroja planned to make it tough.<\/p>\n “From the very first moment, we set out to make our presence felt on the pitch \u2014 to play hard,” Gill said. “If the ball gets through, the man doesn\u2019t. And, honestly, I think the team handled itself well.”<\/p>\n France felt otherwise.<\/p>\n “They pull out every trick in the book,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “It\u2019s not the kind of football that draws people to the stadium. Each team played the way they want. But there were insults from the other bench that I could do without.”<\/p>\n There also appeared to be bad words flying on the pitch, with Mbapp\u00e9 and Galarza verbally sparring at one point.<\/p>\n It seemed, at times, as if the referee could have used some yellow flags, like in American football, in addition to yellow cards.<\/p>\n “We fought a battle,” France\u2019s William Saliba said. “We won the battle.”<\/p>\n Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY In the last 2026 World Cup match in Philadelphia, Paraguay played a style that has been seen many times before at the city\u2019s football stadium. La Albirroja’s physical approach in their 1-0 loss to France in the Round of 16 looked more like what might be seen on a Sunday in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}