French media unanimous in Lucas Digne frustration vs Paraguay in feisty World Cup win

Aston Villa's Lucas Digne didn't do himself any favours as France battled Paraguay on Saturday.

The left-back started for Les Bleus once again as they entered the round of 16 after topping their group with ease.

Having scored 13 goals in four games, there was an expectation they would have no worries against the South Americans.

It didn't turn out that way as the Philadelphia clash was far from pretty for many reasons.

Paraguay somehow avoided a booking, while it took a Kylian Mbappe penalty to seal a hard-fought victory.

Digne featured from the start once again, but his performance only raised frustration in a near-banana skin for the French.

Lucas Digne let himself down vs Paraguay

There is no hiding how much quality Didier Deschamps has at his disposal right now.

That is exactly why Paraguay utilised a five-back formation and played with the "dark arts", let's say.

It ultimately relied on a moment of true quality from Desire Doue to win a penalty.

The 2018-World Cup champions needed something different to break down their opponents.

Digne's crossing could have made a massive difference on the day, but it let him down.

Foot Mercato described his balls into the box as "not ideal" while he "failed to inject any pace into the French attack with his passing".

That was only echoed by Maxifoot who suggested that his crosses "lacked precision", which is hardly a glowing review.

RMC Sport were let down by what they saw, writing: "Unfortunately, his crossing ability wasn't showcased."

The Villa man had a chance to make a difference on a difficult day for his nation, but couldn't make that count in the end.

The numbers as Aston Villa star Digne struggles for France

You can typically call on the 32-year-old when you need creativity from full-back.

His ability to throw a cross into the box has gotten Villa out of a hole many times, but that wasn't seen against Paraguay.

Instead he failed to complete any of his three attempts while racking up just 0.02 expected assists, via Fotmob.

He may have completed 47 passes, but with just nine of those being into the final third, it hardly speaks of a great performance going forward.

Digne did look to balance that out somewhat with a better defensive showing than you may expect.

He chipped in with nine defensive actions including three tackles and six clearances as he also won seven duels on the day.

It wasn't the ideal performance from the left-back, but he will be preparing for the quarter-final's nonetheless.