Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill has hit out at France captain Kylian Mbappe after their controversial World Cup clash.
The Real Madrid star scored a decisive penalty late on in Philadelphia on Saturday, yet the game was marred by Paraguay’s antics, with the South American side accused of being ‘dirty’.
This included various incidents when they scuffed up the penalty spot, elbowed Dayot Upamecano in the ribs, palmed Jules Kounde’s face, tried to get Michael Olise sent off with outrageous play-acting and somehow ended up without a single booking from Uzbekistani referee Ilgiz Tantashev.
And, there was another flashpoint following the last-16 encounter when Mbappe apparently ignored Gill’s handshake.
As the goalkeeper held out his hand, the striker blanked him and continued celebrating in front of the French fans.
Gill reacted furiously, throwing the ball at Mbappe’s back before he walked over to the centre circle, where another melee took place.
Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill hit out at Kylian Mbappe after he refused to shake his hand
Mbappe ignored Gill after the feisty clash and the keeper threw the ball at the France star
Speaking after the match, Gill fumed: ‘Kylian Mbappe has p***ed me off. I stretched my hand to congratulate him, but he ignored me.
‘This is football, if they’re not used to this, what can we do? Paraguay is like that, it’s a tough team.
‘From the first moment we set out to make ourselves felt on the field, that if the ball gets through, the man doesn’t.’
Speaking about the controversial encounter, Mbappe hailed his side and said they are prepared to win via any method at this World Cup.
‘We knew what kind of game we were going to have. We showed that we were not just a team that knows how to play offensive football.
‘They thought we’d come wearing tuxedos, doing great plays, one-twos and whatnot. It’s their way of playing.’
The pundits in the BBC studio similarly savaged the behaviour of the South Americans, with former England goalkeeper Joe Hart saying: ‘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.
France progressed courtesy of a late Mbappe penalty but it was a hugely controversial game
‘The fact that not one Paraguayan today was booked inside the 90 minutes is absolutely astonishing.
‘But fair play to France, you can see what it means, sometimes you can play beautiful football but when you grind out a result as a team and do it like they did tonight, it’s superb.’
Micah Richards added: ‘It was embarrassing to see. Paraguay are better than that. Defensively they were so good and they didn’t need to get into these antics.’
France are set to take on Morocco in the quarter-finals in Boston on Thursday.
