France booked their place in the World Cup quarter-finals with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Paraguay, but most of the post-match attention focused on Paraguay’s behavior rather than the result.After impressing fans by eliminating Germany on penalties in the previous round, Paraguay faced criticism for their aggressive tactics in a hot and humid contest in Philadelphia. Speaking to BBC One, former England goalkeeper Joe Hart didn’t hold back, saying: “The Paraguay players were an absolute disgrace. If they were in my team, I’d drag them off the pitch.”Several incidents involving Paraguayan players went unpunished, including challenges on Adrien Rabiot and Kylian Mbappéwhile the players of France received several yellow cards. Former England defender Micah Richards said: “It was embarrassing to watch. Paraguay is better than this. Defensively, they were so good and they didn’t need to get into these guys.”The decisive moment of the game came 20 minutes from time when Desire Doue was brought down in the box. After reviewing the incident on the monitor, referee Ilgiz Tantashev awarded France a penalty.Paraguay players protested a lot and tried to delay the point, Gustavo Velazquez even tried to damage the penalty spot before Mbappe converted to score his seventh goal of the tournament, level with Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race.France coach Didier Deschamps later revealed: “There were some insults from the other bench that we could have done without.”Tensions continued after the final whistle as the players clashed again. Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin summed up Paraguay’s approach by saying: “Paraguay tried to clear the France players, little shoves and nudges, but not enough to get a yellow card. Every dark art you can use.”France will now face Morocco in the quarter-finals.