France coach Didier Deschamps has hailed his midfield general Paul Pogba for not losing his temper in a heated clash against Uruguay in the World Cup quarter-final on Friday.
After Antoine Griezmann scored France’s second goal in a 2-0 win, young striker Kylian Mbappe was involved in an incident with Uruguay’s Christian Rodriguez that led to the PSG striker falling on the ground and players from both sides getting involved in an altercation.
And as soon as Deschamps saw that the situation is getting out of hand, he took Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba to the side as both Mbappe and Rodriguez were shown yellow cards.
As reported by ESPN, after the game, Deschamps told reporters, “Regarding Paul, well things got a bit hot, and bearing in mind that he did have a yellow card, I didn’t want him to lose his temper and to get a booking for nothing much.”
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He continued, “That’s what I told all the players. If we qualify and they get yellow cards… not even for fouls but because of their gestures, because of their attitude, because of certain words that were said, that’s completely unnecessary.”
Disclosing why he called Pogba to the sideline, Deschamps said, “You can talk to the referee but you can’t be provocative and you can’t fall for the provocation of your rivals. I definitely didn’t want him to get another booking.”
France had six players on a yellow card ahead of last night’s quarter-final and since the cards are wiped out before the World Cup semi-final, Deschamps will have a fully available team to select from, against Belgium.