🇫🇷 Paraguay spent almost the entire game trying to drag France into a fight.
Deep defensive wall, heavy tackles, endless time wasting, players going down, all of it designed to make France's stars lose their heads.
It was disciplined defensively, but it leaned on provocation more than anything Japan did when they frustrated the big teams earlier in this tournament.
Japan defended and earned respect. Paraguay went for the mind games.
Then came the moment that summed it all up. Before Mbappé stepped up for the penalty, Gustavo Velázquez scuffed up the penalty spot with his studs, clearly hoping to throw him off.
Mbappé couldn't have cared less. He buried it anyway and celebrated with a grin that read like a direct message to the Paraguay bench.
He was one of the only French players the tactics never touched. Instead of losing his head, he mocked the whole thing.
France didn't just qualify. They did it on Paraguay's terms and still walked away smiling.
Sources: The Athletic, ESPN / Writer: Julie
#BREAKING MASSIVE WORLD CUP DEVELOPMENTS
Folarin Balogun has had his red match suspension overturned by FIFA and will BE AVAILABLE PLAY TOMORROW #UnitedStates
🚨 @POTUS departs the White House for the National Mall, where he'll soon join tens of thousands of Patriots in celebrating 250 years of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE! 🇺🇸
.@POTUS recognizes 107-year-old Navy veteran and D-Day survivor Arthur Rose on Independence Day.
Lt. Rose then stands to salute the flag that flew aboard the first landing craft at Normandy. 🇺🇸
This morning, Detroit ranked worst air quality in the world thanks to Fourth of July fireworks.
Chicago and Minneapolis both have unhealthier air quality than Washington, DC.
Don’t let the Legacy Media gaslight you — the fireworks in DC were incredible and well worth it.
The entire National Mall fireworks show in about a minute, seen from the webcam at the top of the Washington Monument starting with the B1 Lancer flyover.
🚨 LMFAO! George Stephanopoulos just embarrassed himself on the Reflecting Pool
"Fixing it would cost $2M, now it's $15M, and the pool is still closed. What went wrong?"
SEC. DOUG BURGUM: "It WAS leaking 45,000 gallons PER DAY! It was attempted to be fixed in the past...it's now NOT leaking. The water is now clear. Fences were up for the word's largest fireworks show!"
He's clueless!
In fact, the 273 number was likely originally from DURING the fighting in Iran (6-8 weeks in) — the number as of July 5 is almost DOUBLE that
It's even worse than imagined.