PHILADELPHIA — France are among the oddsmakers’ favorites to bring home a third World Cup and a second since 2018. They’ve generally looked unbothered while winning their four matches thus far by a 13-2 margin.
But in the round of 16 on Saturday, they must defeat both a Paraguay side capable of a stunning upset and the extreme heat that could influence the match.
Kylian Mbappe scored his fifth and sixth goals of the tournament — and 17th and 18th of his World Cup career — in Les Bleus’ 3-0 win over Sweden to begin the knockout phase.
On Saturday, Mbappe, his teammates and their opponents will battle stifling conditions, with highs predicted near 100 Fahrenheit and kickoff set for the late afternoon.
France midfielder Desire Doue admitted it would certainly impact the encounter.
“Well, yes, we are wasting a lot of energy,” he said Friday through an interpreter. “We are sweating more, wasting more water. We might lose some lucidity on the pitch. We arrived in the U.S. It was hot. Today, it’s hotter. And so be it tomorrow.
“Both teams will experience the same conditions, and we are fully ready for this game.”
Paraguay may be more familiar with such conditions, with average summertime highs in the 90s in the capital city of Asuncion.
But manager Gustavo Alfaro suggested that won’t matter much, since it’s not as though Paraguay have been regularly training in such extreme heat.
“Even though you might have this memory, physical memory of understanding what happens with high altitude (or) what happens with heat, it’s different from what happens when you’re there,” Alfaro said.
“The heat will affect both teams. … But those that have a slight advantage are the ones that were able to prepare in that situation.”
France manager Didier Deschamps said Friday that he and assistant Guy Stephan had attended matches at the 2025 Club World Cup, also hosted in the United States, and gained a sense of how heat could impact proceedings.
He declined to say whether his team would take steps that some clubs did during that competition, such as leaving substitutes in climate-controlled dressing rooms during the first half.
“Now, is this good for the players’ health as soon as there are extreme conditions, whether it’s heat or cold or hard pitch? It’s not ideal,” Deschamps said through an interpreter. “But we didn’t choose, so we adapt and we anticipate.”
France are looking to reach their third consecutive World Cup final, while Paraguay are simply trying to match or surpass their best-ever showing of a quarterfinal appearance from 2010.
Success has been so sparse that Paraguayan president Santiago Pena declared a national holiday on Tuesday after the Albirroja pushed Germany to penalty kicks and won the shootout 4-3 in one of the big upsets of the tournament.
But veteran defender Junior Alonso pledged the effort on Saturday would be just as intense, and not tinged with satisfaction of already accomplishing national history.
“We know what we are capable of,” Alonso said. “And the only thing that we could promise to the Paraguayan people is that we are going to give it our all. Hopefully, God will be on our side and we will get the result that we want. But if that is not the case, we would have peace of mind anyway because we got prepared for this every day after getting so tired playing with Germany.”
–Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media
