PHILADELPHIA — It wasn’t sunny in Philadelphia at the end of France’s 1-0 win over Paraguay on Saturday.
Orlando Gill threw a soccer ball at Kylian Mbappé after the match when the French star refused to shake his hand after their match at Lincoln Financial Field.
After the final whistle blew, Gill went over to put his hand out to Mbappé, but the game’s lone goal-scorer never reciprocated the gesture — prompting Gill to toss the ball at his back.
That decision led to a scrum to break out as other French players approached Gill about it.
Mbappé didn’t seem to notice, and the meeting at midfield quickly ended, allowing France to begin its celebration in Philadelphia.
“This is soccer, and I gave him my hand to congratulate him, but he ignored me,” Gill said after the match. “Obviously, I entered a heated moment, but that’s all I did. After that I calmed down. Just wanted to congratulate them. The truth is they’ve had an excellent campaign as they’re candidates to be world champions.”
Mbappé scored his seventh goal of the World Cup to help France advance to the quarterfinals on Thursday in Boston, where it will take on Morocco.
Mbappé did not speak with reporters after the match, but did talk with a World Cup broadcast partner.
“If we have to get our hands dirty, we’ll do it,” Mbappé told broadcasters after the match. “They thought we’d just turn up in tuxedos, make a few flashy moves and play a few passes. We know how to play rough football, too.
“And that’s exactly what we did today — we won. We were even better than them at that.”
There were a number of yellow cards handed out, and Mbappé was involved in an incident earlier in the match when a Paraguayan defender made an aggressive tackle that drew a reaction out of him.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
