France-Paraguay referee handed rare ‘1’ L’Équipe rating | OneFootball

After France’s slender 1-0 win over Paraguay in the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Didier Deschamps said that he wouldn’t criticise the referee of the encounter, nor would he criticise the South American opposition. 

He did nonetheless note that France received three yellow cards and, despite “lots of fouls against [them]”. Paraguay received none, but were strongly criticised for their aggression and antics throughout the game, with former England goalkeeper Joe Hart calling them a “disgrace” on the BBC broadcast of the fixture. 

Matías Galarza was at the centre of a couple of contentious moments as he lashed out an arm at Kylian Mbappé and then, later in the game, Jules Koundé. Both incidents went unpunished, with not even a foul blown.

Ilgiz Tantashev, the Uzbek referee in charge of the game, has come in for considerable criticism for his management of the encounter, as Paraguay went unpunished. L’Équipe handed the referee a rare ‘1’ rating. 

The publication stated, “The Uzbek referee incredibly allowed the Paraguayan’s aggressions to go completely unpunished and kept his cards for the France players. He got almost everything wrong.”

GFFN | Luke Entwistle