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| June 12, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 30, 1423 |
French fans hang heads in shame
PARIS, June 11: French soccer fans howled in anguish then hung their heads in shame on Tuesday as the defending champions crashed out in just three games without even scoring a goal.
Thousands of glum fans stood in front of a vast screen in central Paris to watch their national heroes lose 2-0 to Denmark .
“It’s a nightmare. World champions and this is all we could manage,” said 16-year-old Eddy Remy who, clad in a France strip, had sneaked away from school to watch the match.
Fans lambasted their team’s dismal performance railing against lazy and arrogant players.
“I feel let down by this team — they were arrogant, and put on a pathetic show,” said Vincent Picard, 21, who took a day off work to watch the crucial clash. “We’re supposed to be this mighty team and we couldn’t even manage a goal.”
France’s agony was matched by the joy of victory in the Danish capital Copenhagen, as cheering Danes poured out of pubs into the town square singing the rock group Queen’s “We are the Champions”.
The defeat of the once-mighty team deals another bitter blow to France’s proud self-image.
“Shame times 2” read a banner held by one frustrated fan.
The pain etched on French fans’ faces was a far cry from 1998, when thousands revelled in Paris’s Champs Elysee boulevard after les Bleus’ World Cup final victory over Brazil.
Fans in Copenhagen new it was their turn to celebrate.
“It’s fantastic. We beat the world and European champions,” said John Soegaard, a 29-year-old railway serviceman who had taken the day off to watch the game from a pub in central Copenhagen.—Reuters
AFP ADDS: Police cleared thousands of cheering Danish football supporters from a main Copenhagen square on Tuesday because of a bomb scare just minutes after Denmark defeated France.
After cordoning off the Copenhagen City Hall Square, police exploded a black bag found in a telephone booth next to a bus terminal.
A police spokesman said the bag was intentionally made to look like a bomb but contained no explosives.
Earlier, an unidentified man had phoned the fire department to say there was a bomb in a telephone booth on the square.
The square is a central hub in the city, just a few steps from the main pedestrian thoroughfare and the famed Tivoli Gardens.
Traffic was jammed on streets leading to the City Hall Square as many Danes headed to work after taking part of the morning off to watch the game.
The square was reopened around noon.
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