Joe Hart spots 'disgusting' act by Paraguay player that referee missed against France
Joe Hart spotted what he described as a 'disgusting' act by one of the Paraguay players during their 1-0 defeat to France in the World Cup last 16.
Kylian Mbappe's 70th-minute penalty in Philadelphia sent France through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, where they will take on 2022 semi-finalists Morocco.
Paraguay's game plan was to disrupt France's play through their physicality, and that crossed the line on multiple occasions.
Mbappe was a particular target, and he was kicked in the shin by the grounded Paraguay defender Junior Alonso during the second half.
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Tensions between the two sides did threaten to boil over on occasions, but French players kept their composure on the whole and ran over to celebrate with their fans at the end of the match.
Paraguay committed 13 fouls during the game, but referee Ilgiz Tantashev did not show a yellow card for any of them.
Former Manchester City and England goalkeeper Hart, who was on punditry duty for BBC Sport, described that fact as 'astonishing', and pinpointed one 'disgraceful' moment in particular from a Paraguay player.
Centre-back Gustavo Velazquez was seen scuffing up the penalty spot moments before Mbappe took his penalty, but the referee had his back turned to the spot while he was addressing other players and didn't see it happen.
It is not a particular offence that VAR can intervene to punish, as the technology cannot award respective yellow cards, so Velasquez escaped without any sanction.
"Honestly... if I'm Gill [Paraguay goalkeeper], I don't care if that's my own player, I'm ripping his shirt off his back. That is not how I want to play the game. Disgusting.
"I'm so glad he [Mbappe, with the penalty] sat him down and slotted this."
"I love how Mbappe has behaved in this game," Hart continued. "The Paraguay players have come for him from minute one. When he was laughing at the players... he is allowed to be arrogant.
"Paraguay's players were an absolute disgrace. If they were on my team, I'd be dragging them off the pitch.
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"I would never want to win that way, I would never want to play football that way. The referee didn't help in any circumstances. The fact that not one Paraguayan was booked inside the 90 minutes is absolutely astonishing.
"You can play beautiful football, you can pass people off the park. But when you grind out a win as a team and get that result that they did tonight, superb."
'The moment they lost me' - Paraguay antics slammed
Alongside Hart in the BBC studio was former Aston Villa and Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who echoed Hart's comments in criticising what Paraguay did.
"That's when they lost me, that was the last moment. Going at the penalty spot and trying to manipulate it. That's really bad sportsmanship," he said.
"That's why I was so sympathetic towards Kylian Mbappe. We all love him for what he does on the pitch.
"They [Paraguay] went too far. Absolutely. They played to their strength most of the time, and then at some point they get away with these things. The referee never stopped it, at any moment.
"When they realised that the first yellow card went to [France's Bradley] Barcola, they must have been thinking, 'This is our night. We can just continue. We're protected by the referee'. They just continued that way."
Topics: Joe Hart, FIFA, FIFA World Cup, France
Ryan Smart