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RIYADH: When Ismael Saibari clutched the back of his right thigh just 22 minutes into Morocco’s FIFA World Cup round of 16 clash against Canada, alarm bells started ringing. In a tournament where the Atlas Lions’ glaring weakness had been converting golden chances, losing their top scorer was the last thing they needed.
Kylian Mbappe’s penalty booked France’s spot in the quarter-finals of the World Cup as they edged a 1-0 win over Paraguay in a bad-tempered Philadelphia contest.
HOUSTON: The end result was as expected, but for 45 minutes the performance was not. After a quintessential game of two halves, Morocco became the first African team in history to twice reach the World Cup quarterfinals, yet it was not the easy game against Canada that many fans anticipated. When the final whistle went, two-goal hero Azzedine Ounahi said he “felt like crying” after helping to give his country the celebrations its people were expecting.
We began Saturday with 16 teams left in the 2026 FIFA World Cup and by the end of the night we lost two following matches that were gripping for very different reasons.
PHILADELPHIA, July 4 : France coach Didier Deschamps said he feared Kylian Mbappe would be "chopped down" as Paraguay turned their World Cup last-16 tie into a bruising battle, with Les Bleus eventually clawing their way into the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win on Saturday.
LOS ANGELES: Kylian Mbappe scored from the penalty spot as France overcame searing heat and stubborn defence to beat Paraguay 1-0 and set up a World Cup quarter-final against Morocco on Saturday (Jul 4).
PHILADELPHIA: Kylian Mbappe converted from the spot for his 19th World Cup goal and seventh of this tournament as France outlasted Paraguay to reach the quarterfinals with a 1-0 victory on Saturday in a steamy round of 16 encounter. With the penalty, earned by substitute Desire Doue’s slaloming run into the area, Mbappe scored in the 70th minute to pull even with Argentina’s Lionel Messi atop the 2026 Golden Boot leaderboard and move within one of the 39-year-old for the all-time World Cup goals lead. It was all Les Bleus needed against a resilient but limited Albirroja side, who defended admirably in sweltering conditions with temperatures nearing 100 Fahrenheit while offering little going forward. France advance to meet Morocco next Thursday in Foxborough, Mass., in a rematch of the 2022 semifinal that ended in a 2-0 French victory. Paraguay shocked Germany on penalties following a 1-1 draw in the round of 32 on Monday, a result that inspired president Santiago Pena to declare Tuesday a national holiday. But the Albirroja still exited a round shy of their all-time best quarterfinal finish in 2010, which doubled as their last World Cup finals appearance. The South Americans frustrated the two-time World Champions throughout the first half and well into the second, aided in part by the card-shy approach of Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev.
Kylian Mbappe laughed and smiled — and scored, of course — when Paraguay tried to bait him and his French teammates into fouls and provoke fights, as hot heads became a recurring theme during one of the steamiest World Cup games on record.