Best Reactions as France win a Second World Cup

When teenager Kylian Mbappe crashed a shot home to give France a 4-1 lead with 25 minutes left in the World Cup final yesterday, it not only confirmed the game’s new superstar, but ensured the World Cup is returning to Paris after 20 years.

The heartache of losing the European finals on home soil forgotten, social and economic pressures all took the back seat as the country erupted in joy Sunday night.

Proud Frenchmen streamed into the streets, honking car horns and flying the tricolore flag at the start of an enormous national celebration across the cities, and in particular, Paris, where crowds had packed the Champs Elysees in a repeat of the scenes of 20 years ago when more than one million people partied there into the early hours.

“We won, we won!” rang out at the end of the match in the giant fanzone erected near the Eiffel Tower in Paris where almost 100 000 people packed out a park to watch the game on giant screens.

Amid the dancing, drinking and singing of the national anthem, some fans paused to savour a moment of unbridled joy and national unity after a difficult period for the nation.

And so did President Emmanuel Macron, a keen football supporter who was in the stadium in Moscow and is already basking in the afterglow of the victorious campaign in Russia.

“MERCI,” he wrote in a one-word tweet.

قالب وردپرس