FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16: Mbappe’s penalty gave victory, France defeated Paraguay 1-0 and made place in the Round of 16

Philadelphia. Thanks to star striker Kylian Mbappe’s decisive goal in the second half, France defeated Paraguay 1-0 in the match played on Saturday and secured their place in the Round of 16 of the FIFA World Cup 2026. This match, played in the scorching heat, saw a tough competition between the two teams, but in the end France won.

Both the teams did not get success in the first half

From the beginning of the match, both the teams adopted a cautious strategy. France and Paraguay combined took only five shots in the first half. During the game, there were many fouls and heated arguments between the players, but neither of the two teams was successful in scoring a goal.

Penalty awarded after VAR, Mbappe did not make any mistake

The decisive moment of the match came in the 70th minute, when Paraguay’s Diego Gomez brought down France substitute Désiré Douay inside the penalty area.

The referee first reviewed the incident with the help of VAR and then awarded a penalty to France. Kylian Mbappe, who came to take the penalty, brilliantly dodged goalkeeper Orlando Gil and sent the ball into the net and gave his team a 1-0 lead.

Messi’s equal in the Golden Boot race

With this goal, Kylian Mbappe scored his seventh goal in the World Cup. With this he reached level with Lionel Messi and made the race for the Golden Boot more exciting.

Apart from this, Mbappe and Messi have now become the second players who have held the record of scoring seven or more goals in the 2022 and 2026 World Cups.

Paraguay’s comeback attempt failed

After conceding the goal, Paraguay continuously showed aggressive play to achieve equality, but France’s strong defense thwarted all efforts.

In the last moments of the match, Mbappe got two more goals, but Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gil made an excellent save and kept the score at 1-0.

Now France’s next match will be played against Morocco in Boston on Thursday.

Also read: Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s first post after debut goes viral, Said- ‘Today I am living the dream I had seen’