Joe Hart has launched a scathing attack on Paraguay following France’s feisty World Cup win last night.
Les Bleus booked their place quarter-finals of the competition with a narrow 1-0 victory in Philadelphia thanks to a second-half Kylian Mbappe penalty.
Victory, however, was overshadowed by Paraguay’s relentless physical approach and gamesmanship that led BBC pundit and former England goalkeeper Hart to brand Gustavo Alfaro’s side disgraceful.
‘This Paraguayan team was an absolute disgrace,’ Hart told the BBC. ‘I’d take my teammates off the field if they played like that.
‘I’d never want to win a soccer match playing that way.’
Throughout a bruising contest, the South American side left a number of heavy challenges on French players, including their captain Mbappe.
Hart questioned one off-the-ball clash involving Mbappe that ‘could easily have been a red card’, while he was also angered by Paraguay’s antics upon the award of the decisive penalty, after which several players attempted to scuff up the spot from which the Real Madrid star converted the winning goal.
Those sentiments were echoed by former Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic who praised France’s composure in the face of significant provocation.
Working as a pundit on Fox TV in America, Ibrahimovic said: ‘If I had played that match, I would have received four or five red cards and I would have sent someone to the hospital…
‘I don’t like that, even if provocation is part of the game. France didn’t let it get to them.
‘The best way to react when you’re provoked is to smile and not fall into the trap, like France did.’
Following the final whistle, Paraguay’s goalkeeper Orlando Gill was seemingly ignored by Mbappe after attempting to shake his hand.
‘Kylian Mbappe has pissed me off,’ said the goalkeeper, who won the man of the match award. ‘I stretched my hand to congratulate him, but he ignored me.’
Responding to Gil’s claim and the treatment he received throughout France’s toughest game of the competition so far, Mbappe said: ‘If we have to get our hands dirty, we will do it.
‘They thought we’d show up in tuxedos to play, but we know how to play dirty football too.
‘We’ve shown we’re not just a team that knows how to play attacking football.’