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Former England and Manchester City goalkeeper, Joe Hart, called the Paraguay players “an absolute disgrace” for how they played during their World Cup round of 16 defeat to France.
Hart believes they pushed the boundaries too far with their conduct and were caught up in the emotion of the occasion.
One moment that particularly angered the BBC pundit was when Gustavo Velazquez deliberately scuffed up the penalty spot before Kylian Mbappe was due to step up from 12 yards.
Despite the disruption, which included multiple Paraguay players delaying the taking for as long as possible, the Real Madrid man stepped up and scored the game’s only goal.
After watching back replays of the incident, Hart said: “If I’m [Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando] Gill, I don’t care if that’s my own player; I’m ripping his shirt off his back,” Hart was quoted by Express. “That is not how I want to play the game. Disgusting. I’m so glad [Mbappe] sat [Gill] down and slotted [it past] him.”
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The long-time Manchester City player heaped praise on Mbappe. “I absolutely love how [Mbappe] has behaved in this game, because they have come for him from minute one. And towards the end, when he was just laughing at the Paraguayan players, that is… He’s allowed to be arrogant because he is brilliant.
“But the Paraguayan players were an absolute disgrace tonight. If they were on my team, I’d be dragging half of them off the pitch. I would never want to win that way, I would never want to play football that way.
“And the referee didn’t help in any of the circumstances. The fact that not one Paraguayan was booked inside the 90 minutes today is absolutely astonishing.”
Up next for the French team is a quarter-final clash with Morocco’s Atlas Lions.
Both teams faced each other in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar which France won 2-0.
