France vs Paraguay: Blame the Ref, Not Paraguay

France vs Paraguay ended 1-0, but the real story was the referee, not Paraguay’s game plan. The blame is in the wrong place.

Paraguay did what they had to do against France. France vs Paraguay was never going to be a beauty contest.

It was a knockout fight, and Paraguay fought like a team that knew exactly what was in front of them.

There. That is the take. Not pretty. Not cute.

Not for the romantics who want every underdog to pass out from the back like 2011 Barca. 

But it was honest tournament football.

France won 1-0 because Kylian Mbappe did Kylian Mbappe things from the penalty spot in the 70th minute. 

Desire Doue forced the moment, Diego Gomez made the clumsy challenge, VAR got involved, and France escaped. That is the whole thing. Escaped.

Because before that penalty, Paraguay had dragged France into the kind of match France clearly did not want to play. 

Slow. Ugly. Irritating. Broken into bits. 

The game had no rhythm because Paraguay killed the rhythm, buried it, and asked the ref to sign the death certificate.

And honestly? Fair play.

What did people expect Paraguay to do? 

Open up against Mbappe, Olise, Barcola, Doue and the rest of that blue cheat code squad? Come on. 

That is not bravery. That is booking your flight home before half-time.

Paraguay knew the assignment. Make France uncomfortable. Make every touch feel like admin work. 

Turn every corner, throw-in and loose ball into a committee meeting. Annoy the stars. Slow the game. Keep it 0-0 for as long as possible. 

Then pray one chance falls your way.

That is not anti-football. That is survival football.

The real villain in France vs Paraguay is not Paraguay. 

It is Ilgiz Tantashev, the referee who watched this match turn into a Lagos traffic argument and kept acting like his cards were locked in a drawer somewhere.

France ended the match with all three yellow cards. Paraguay had none. Zero. Nothing. 

For a team that spent large parts poking, delaying, crowding and turning dead balls into town hall meetings, that is ridiculous.

A referee’s job is not to hope chaos behaves itself. 

It is to stop chaos before it starts selling tickets.

People will say Paraguay made the game ugly. Correct. They did. 

But the referee allowed ugly to become the whole match. There is a difference.

If Tantashev books one Paraguayan player early, the entire temperature changes. 

If he deals with the late contact and the little afters, players stop testing him. 

Instead, he let the game drift until it felt like a family meeting after inheritance money went missing.

That is on him.

Yes, Paraguay were horrible to watch. Yes, neutral fans suffered. Fine. 

But knockout football is not a talent show. It is not there to make you feel warm inside. It is there to decide who stays alive.

France survived. Paraguay lost. But Paraguay did not betray football. They played the only hand they had.

So blame the referee. Blame France for needing a VAR penalty to break them. Blame the format if you want. 

But blaming Paraguay for refusing to play France’s game is lazy. 

France vs Paraguay was ugly because Paraguay made it ugly, and the referee let it stay that way.

If your squad is weaker and you do not make the favourite suffer, you are not brave. You are stupid.