"Paraguay's players were an absolute disgrace," former England goalkeeper Joe Hart told BBC One. "If they were on my team, I'd be dragging them off the pitch."

After brushing aside opponents earlier in this World Cup, France needed a different approach to stay in contention for the title they won in 2018. Their narrow 1-0 success against Paraguay proved tough to achieve.

Paraguay had earned respect from fans by upsetting Germany on penalties in the round of 32.

Yet in a heated contest played under intense Philadelphia conditions, they revealed a harsher approach.

Andres Cubas avoided a caution after fouling Adrien Rabiot. Juan Jose Caceres struck out at Kylian Mbappe without consequence.

Remarkably, while France players Manu Kone, Bradley Barcola and Michael Olise received yellow cards, Paraguay saw none booked. This included Gabriel Avalos elbowing Dayot Upamecano late on.

"It was embarrassing to see," former England defender Micah Richards told BBC One.

"Paraguay are better than that. Defensively they were so good and they didn't need to get into these antics."

France's result set up a quarter-final clash with Morocco at Boston Stadium on Thursday at 21:00 BST.

The key incident occurred with 20 minutes remaining when Diego Gomez tripped Desire Doue. Referee Ilgiz Tantashev, whose lenient display faced widespread rebuke, used the pitchside monitor to award a penalty.

Even afterward, Paraguay players surrounded the official to waste time, and Gustavo Velazquez scuffed the spot before Mbappe converted his seventh goal of the tournament, matching Lionel Messi for the Golden Boot chase.

"There were some insults from the other bench we could have done without," said France boss Didier Deschamps afterward.

Post-match, a scuffle erupted as Velazquez approached France players.

"Paraguay tried to wind up the France players, little shoves and nudges but not enough to get a yellow card," former Scotland winger Pat Nevin told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Every single dark art you can use."

Mbappe sits one behind Messi in the all-time World Cup goalscorers list after reaching 19 goals in 19 matches.

Strikingly, since 2018 Mbappe has netted more knockout-stage World Cup goals (11) than Brazil (10), England (10), Portugal (9) and Spain (4).

Following 13 goals across their prior four matches in the United States, France and their captain faced frustration as they failed to test the goalkeeper before halftime.

The extreme heat marked this as one of the hottest World Cup fixtures ever, with 38.3C recorded at kick-off.

The record stands at 43C from Republic of Ireland versus Mexico in Florida in 1994.

Still, France overcame both the conditions and Paraguay's physical style.

"We know how to play ugly football," Mbappe said afterward.

"They thought we'd show up in tuxedos, but we were ready. Even at that game, we were better than them.

"That's their style of football - there's no right or wrong way to play the game. They tried to beat us that way, but we won."

Deschamps, now the first coach with 10 World Cup knockout wins, said he told players to protect Mbappe late on as Paraguay sought an equalizer.

"I asked the two biggest lads to go and stand around Kylian at the end because they were going to chop him down," Deschamps added.

"It wasn't easy. They use every trick in the book. It's not the kind of football that will bring people to the stadium, but they defended well. It is always difficult against these South American teams."

Mbappe faced targeting throughout but stayed composed, laughing off the provocations.

"I love how Mbappe has behaved in this game," added Hart.

"The Paraguay players have come for him from minute one. When he was laughing at the players, he is allowed to be arrogant.

"The referee didn't help in any circumstances. The fact that not one Paraguayan was booked inside the 90 minutes is astonishing."

Thomas Hitzlsperger told BBC One he had "no respect" for Paraguay's conduct.

"If you are from Paraguay, you probably like the team - they are like warriors," he added.

"If you are French or neutral, you can have no respect for them any more. This is not just disgraceful, this is even worse."

France forward Rayan Cherki noted the match proved Les Bleus can handle provocation.

"We knew it was going to be a fiercely contested match," he added.

"But it was important to us to play a game like this during the World Cup - to remind everyone that the French team can play beautiful football, but can also go to war."

William Saliba said France prepared for Paraguay by reviewing footage.

"They were going to come at us hard, commit fouls, and try to provoke us," added the Arsenal defender.

"We had to stay in the game, because if we started wasting energy, getting into arguments, and losing our focus, things wouldn't go well.

"It's not easy, but sometimes it feels good to win a tough match like this, because since the start of the tournament, we've been used to scoring three goals.

"Today, it was a 1-0 win, but it's just as valuable."

The 2026 World Cup has featured refereeing aimed at open play.

But it failed for Ilgiz Tantashev.

Tantashev should have anticipated Paraguay's likely style of tough challenges to disrupt France.

The Uzbek referee needed to act sooner and assert control to deter rough play.

Consider how Michael Oliver handled Saturday's Canada versus Morocco tie, issuing six yellow cards by halftime, after which the game settled with just two more.

The reverse occurred in Philadelphia.

The foul count of 13 for Paraguay and 11 for France hides the reality.

The referee overlooked numerous Paraguay fouls, both tactical and off-ball.

Even more notably, no Paraguay player received a card while three France players did.

France progress thanks to the VAR-awarded penalty rather than the referee's decisions.