{"id":5185,"date":"2026-06-24T02:49:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=5185"},"modified":"2026-06-24T02:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:49:19","slug":"world-cup-2026-what-france-iraq-did-during-two-hour-weather-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=5185","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: What France & Iraq did during two-hour weather delay"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“We’ve been through an awful lot tonight,” screamed the stadium announcer during a weather delay lasting more than two hours in the match between France and Iraq.<\/b><\/p>\n

It was a challenging night for players, coaches – and all 68,344 fans inside Philadelphia Stadium.<\/p>\n

A game that started at 17:00 local time finally ended at 20:47 because of safety concerns amid adverse weather conditions.<\/p>\n

Storm clouds were already building when Canadian referee Drew Fischer blew for half-time at 17:49 with France leading 1-0.<\/p>\n

Then came the heavy rain and a threat of thunderstorms in the area.<\/p>\n

When it was finally deemed safe enough to resume, it was 20:00.<\/p>\n

France, eager to make up for lost time, scored another two goals to run out 3-0 winners, with captain Kylian Mbappe scoring a double<\/a> on his 100th international appearance as Les Bleus reached the last 32.<\/p>\n

There was no hydration break in the second half, while there were just two minutes of additional time at the end.<\/p>\n

“It was a very long evening,” said Mbappe.<\/p>\n

“We spent a lot of time waiting. It’s emotionally and mentally draining because we had to stay fully focused and engaged in the dressing room.<\/p>\n

“Staying in the dressing room for an hour and a half – almost two hours – while maintaining focus is very difficult. It demands a lot. The players made a huge effort, as did the staff.”<\/p>\n

So what did they do in the delay?<\/p>\n

“We played cards,” joked France boss Didier Deschamps.<\/p>\n

“No, well, we were waiting. We had slots that kept being pushed forward again.<\/p>\n

“I was actually having a good time with my players and having fun.<\/p>\n

“It’s a question of safety. You cannot fight against the rain and lightning.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t annoy me. These are very special circumstances and I do hope they don’t happen again. It was important to take no risks.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We’ve been through an awful lot tonight,” screamed the stadium announcer during a weather delay lasting more than two hours…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}