Deschamps keeps his cool as France survive Paraguay’s provocation

After France survived a contentious World Cup round of 16 clash with a 1-0 victory over Paraguay, French manager Didier Deschamps tried to take the high road.

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France somehow ended the match with all three bookings from Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev despite Paraguay being the team who sat deep and defended.

But that state of affairs was expected from Deschamps and his side on a sweltering afternoon that was the hottest match of this World Cup.

“Ι’ve seen a lot of things,” Deschamps said. “Ι have prepared the players. The players were expecting this game.

“Ι do not want to criticise Paraguay. Each team plays the way they want. But there were some insults from the other bench which I could have done without.

“The most important is by the end of the game that there were no disagreements and that we (did not) get another card.

“We got three yellow cards with a lot of fouls. I’m not saying that we did not make any fouls, but there were a lot from both teams.”