France’s media rate William Saliba’s performance v Paraguay and it’s absolutely baffling

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William Saliba helped France to a clean sheet as they sealed their place in the last 16 of the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Paraguay.

Saliba had to be at his very best to keep the South Americans at bay in what was an ill-tempered affair.

Alongside Dayot Upamecano, Saliba was once again the rock in which France built from at the back and in the end, it was enough.

However, in a remarkable turn of events, the French media seemed to view things differently as they bizarrely downplayed Saliba’s performance.

French media rate Dayot Upamecano above William Saliba

We’re all for opinions and everyone has one but the French media have got one wrong here when it comes to Saliba and Upamecano.

Saliba was by far the superior defender on the night, with his fellow defender making a number of errors leading to goalscoring opportunities for Paraguay.

However, the French media rated Upamecano higher than Saliba and in Foot Mercato’s view, Saliba was actually far worse than his partner.

“More in the man-to-man duel, the French defender sometimes got caught up in this little game, also playing a lot of the shirt pull and sometimes being punished, logically, by the referee. We felt he was nervous because of the turn taken by the match but he remained vigilant in front of the Almiron moped in particular,” Foot Mercato wrote, giving him a 5.5 out of 10 rating.

Le Parisien also didn’t speak too highly of Saliba, only giving him a 6.5 out of 10.

While these ratings are the view of the French media, they are completely wide of the mark.

Saliba was by far the superior defender on the night. He kept his cool when everyone else around him seemed to be getting wound up by the Paraguay players.

The Arsenal man was the epitome of class and in the end, showed just what Arsenal fans have been witnessing for a few seasons now when it mattered the most.