MBAPPE’S CHANCES NO LONGER UNBEATEN

Although he didn’t score, 19-year-old France forward Kylian Mbappe again looked dangerous on the attack, trying to slice in from the right wing or directing quick passes into Uruguay’s defense.

Mbappe, who has modeled his game after Cristiano Ronaldo and is being compared to Zinedine Zidane, also picked up a second-half yellow card for falling to the ground as if in agony after a touch from an opponent.

Mbappe scored twice against Argentina to become the first teenager with multiple goals in a World Cup knockout game since a 17-year-old Pele in 1958.

Heading into the match, Uruguay had been unbeaten in 2018 and Muslera had the best save percentage of any goalkeeper at the tournament who had played more than one match. He had 11 saves and had allowed only one goal in four World Cup matches in Russia.

A country of only 3.5 million, Uruguay won World Cup titles in 1930 and 1950 and then waned. But it has undergone a revival in the last 12 years under the 71-year-old Tabarez, a former elementary school teacher.

The country was trying to reach the semifinals for the second time in the last three World Cups.

“It seems that the four games we won before this one are worth nothing, but that’s not true,” Tabarez said. “Today we played against opponents that were stronger than we were.”