High-flying France show they can be fashionably ugly too

The gloriously multi-dimensional French know many ways to kill the pesky cat disturbing their sleep. They could baffle them with their touch; they could bemuse them with their wits; they could pin them down with their muscle; they could play the piano, they could wield the sledgehammer too, which makes them the deadliest proposition in the tournament. The 1-0 victory over Paraguay that ensured quarterfinals was a triumph of their brawn, their capacity to outmatch gnarled men who tried to wrestle them, sometimes literally, and at times harm them with a brand of cynicism that was strangely left unpunished.

Wins as these don’t build an aura; but construct an irresistible energy that makes them feel unbreakable; that not even the extremest tactic could shake them. It was not France’s inability to score more goals that stood in a game that Thierry Henry commented, “football finally won” but their wherewithal and knowhow to nullify any strategies thrown at them. Kylian Mbappe, who scored the lone goal of the goal, after a penalty on Desire Doue, quipped, his eyes burning with a happy rage: “They thought we were going to turn up in tuxedos, but we know how to play rough football — and even at that, we were better than them!” The line before was a warning to the world: “We’ve shown that we’re not just a team that plays attacking football; if we have to put our hands in the s—, we will put our hands in the s—.”

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