Deschamps hails players for keeping their cool in fiery encounter

France coach Didier Deschamps hailed his side for keeping its cool against an aggressive Paraguay team in heatwave conditions on Saturday, as the favorite reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

"It wasn't easy," Deschamps told French broadcaster M6.

"They used every resource possible. It is maybe not the kind of football that brings people to the stadium, playing with that aggression, exaggerating everything,"

France had scored 13 goals in its four World Cup outings prior to this game, but on Saturday it struggled to create any clear scoring chances, despite totally dominating possession.

France's most creative players — Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola — all found the going tough against a niggly Paraguayan team looking to cause another upset after ousting Germany in the last 32.

"We stayed focused on our game. It was difficult, they had lots of men behind the ball and they defended well," added Deschamps.

"Obviously, the temperatures made it hard to play with intensity, and without that (intensity from us) they defended well."

The match was played in the late afternoon heat, with temperatures hitting 38 C in Philadelphia as the city celebrated the United States' July 4th holiday weekend, which also marked the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding.

Deschamps was also left perplexed that his team collected three yellow cards, while not a single Paraguay player was booked.

"I am not going to criticize the referee, but we finished the game with three bookings, and yet, there were a lot of things going on," Deschamps said in his post-match news conference, also suggesting that he and his team were subjected to verbal aggression, too.

"I won't criticize Paraguay. Every team can play however they want, but I could do without the insults.

"The most important thing is that there were no incidents at the end. But, all that matters is that we have qualified."

Deschamps said he had to resort to using two of his strongest players to protect captain Kylian Mbappe against Paraguayan aggression toward the end of the match.

"We kept our nerve and that is an essential thing. It doesn't win you the game, but it is important," he added.

"This experience will help us. After all, we have a lot of players who are playing at their first World Cup," he added.

"I wouldn't say it had been easy for us up to now, but now we have had a different type of game."

AFP