Caceres reveals unexpected exchange with Mbappé during France-Paraguay knockout

Paraguayan defender Juan José Caceres lifted the veil on a tasty exchange with Kylian Mbappé during the knockout round won by France (1-0), revealing that the captain of the Blues had jokingly asked him if he wanted to “give him a kiss”.

Targeted by particularly rough marking throughout the match, Mbappé nonetheless kept his cool in the face of Caceres’ multiple forceful interventions. Questioned by Argentine media Agarrá La Pala, the Dynamo Moscow defender recounted the scene with a smile: “He asked me if I wanted to give him a kiss. I replied to him: ‘Well, since you’re offering…’”

On the question of possible insults from Mbappé toward his mother, Caceres firmly ruled it out: “No, I didn’t hear it. Honestly, I don’t even know what he said.” He did report, however, that the Real Madrid player had described Paraguay’s performance as a “dirty match”.

Far from taking offense, Caceres claimed his team’s approach: “We did our job. We gave everything on the pitch. Every ball that came to us, we treated it like a final. We came out fighting — head held high — exactly as Alfaro had said.” Coach Gustavo Alfaro had indeed prepared his players for maximum physical confrontation against one of the tournament’s favorites.

Despite the elimination, the Paraguayans fully own their strategy, which fueled controversy well beyond the final whistle. The referee’s relative leniency in the face of numerous rough contacts had sparked strong reactions, with Mbappé being the most exposed target of organized collective marking.