Euro 2024 Diary: Boys from the Bondy banlieue beat Belgium while helping to fight far right
France 1-0 Belgium in Düsseldorf was more than just a game after Les Bleus' stars speak out against the French far right
Caption: French fans produce a tricolour for their pre-match tifo prior to beating Belgium 1-0 in Dusseldorf on Monday evening. See below for more. CREDIT:
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Happy Dienstag,
Or it would be if my trains from Dussledorf via Frankfurt to Leipzig, to cover Austria vs Turkey, weren’t delayed.
Not delays, you understand, on the scale of the East Coast Mainline, where, after forking out a small fortune and at least one kidney, you are delighted if your train actually turns up at all.
No, Deutsche Bahn delays are more niggly. It’s more a case of 19 minutes here, 34 minutes there. No cancellations as such, and a computer that say ‘no’. But annoying all the same.
The train to the east. CREDIT:
No, German delays simply mean you have more time for a walk around, rather than ponder on the meaning of life, and wishing you had spent an extra 30 minutes in bed as you’re completely and utterly knackered after the nest part of three weeks on the go.
Not that I’m complaining really as I got to cover another football match on Monday night. In Dusseldorf.
Meaning I could have a leisurely stroll through the Aldstadt and sample the sights and sounds of a France vs Belgium knock-out game.
I think what I will take away from my stroll around is that one of the joys of attending a major football tournament is its sense of conviviality. Everywhere I looked on a warm afternoon in the old town near the Rhine, people were having fun.
Admittedly the majority were having fun drinking.
Which, to be fair if, if you watched the England team in the 1980s and 1990s as I did, is a not inconsiderable feat.
Given that, for a long spell, following the England team abroad involved dodging hooligans’ excesses, while attempting to persuade annoyed locals that despite your designer gear and short hair, you weren’t actually a hooligan yourself, and come to think of it, read the Guardian every day, and hated Margaret Thatcher.
So, even now, when I see other teams and countries’ fans drinking and enjoying themselves I always recall those dark days, when certain groups of England fans would invariably kick-off - with the locals, with each other, with other hooligans. Or simply smash things up for the sake of it.
So, when I see a Belgium fan dressed as a packet of French fries (or was it Belgium frites) I don’t think, ‘what an idiot’ (and he hasn’t even added the mayonnaise) I think ‘good for him,’ because having fun at a football match - in whatever peaceful way that floats your boat - is A Good Thing.
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Back to future at Dusseldorf Arena
And so it came to pass that I returned to a stadium where I still can’t make up my mind whether I absolutely love it, or completely and utterly hate it: The Dusseldorf Arena.
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Anyway, now for the important stuff: The way the French team are standing up to the Far Right during their country’s General Elections deserves far more praise than they are receiving.
I was supposed to meet an old mate in the Aldstadt after last night’s match, but I felt my report feature had to underline the players’ courage in speaking out, with a little bit of political and socio-econonic context added, which is why I took longer to write this piece, and why I missed having a few late night beers with him.
It would have been nice to catch up with an old football mate who I last saw at the Stone Roses in Heaton Park many moons ago, but, as a journalist, I felt this piece had to be written for the Morning Star newspaper.
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PS:
My Morning Star newspaper match report from Dusseldorf on Monday evening
The boys from the Bondy banlieue beat Belgium while helping to fight far right
France 1–0 Belgium: Report by Layth Yousif at the Dusseldorf Arena
In the midst of a hastily called - and increasingly ugly - general election in which the French far right are threatening to take hold, it took the help of proud sons of immigrants to ease Didier Deschamps diverse team into the last eight of the European Championships
While the record books will show that it took a late own goal by Belgium’s former Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen for an underwhelming French side to move into the quarter-finals - where they will face Portugal at the Volkstadion in Hamburg this weekend - the architect of the winner was very much French.
An 85th minute shot by PSG attacker Kolo Muani was the catalyst for the deflection from the 37-year-old veteran Vertonghen to beat Belgium keeper Koen Casteels – and enough to clinch victory for Deschamps’ misfiring side.
While it was Muani who helped France to victory - the latest graduate from Bondy, a satellite town, fewer than 10 miles from the Eiffel Tower, but a world away in terms of social deprivation from the designer-shop rife wide boulevards of the Parisian capital – the working-class ville of 50,000 inhabitants is at the forefront of the battle against the far right.
Bondy – where Kylian Mbappe and William Saliba also hail from - is an unprepossessing working-class suburb situated to the north-east of Paris forming part of a concrete sprawl of satellite towns on the outskirts of the capital.
Saliba and Mbappe's hometown is part of the chain of banlieues - literally doughnut - that are an outer ring of locales circling a far richer centre.
They are branded by the far right - and well-heeled outsiders full of social prejudice - as no-go areas, used by Marine Le Pen’s reprehensible National Rally as scare tactics at the ballot box in a bid to demonise immigrants and push people into the arms of the racist RN.
Yet the truth lies far from the stigma - for while the banlieues face urban deprivation and cuts in government funding for vital services including schools and play areas - such places are vibrant, melting pots where excellence in sport and urban art are seen not only as forms of self-expression but of a way out.
The banlieues are also where eight of France’s 1998 World Cup winners grew up, Deschamps immortal colleagues from that memorable victory that Le Pen's openly racist father refused to accept on the basis that the team 'wasn't French.'
In the aftermath of victory in Dusseldorf on Monday evening, it was Muani’s teammate, Jules Kounde who used his platform to gripping effect as a sportsperson, when he - just like captain Mbappe did last week – slammed the far-right.
Speaking bravely and eloquently after the match the 25-year-old banlieue-born Barcelona defender said plaintively: “I was disappointed to see the direction France is taking, with strong support for a party against our values.
“The far-right party, National Rally, who are against freedom and are against our coexistence.”
Seine-Saint-Denis, where Bondy is located, is the department with the highest poverty rates in the country.
No wonder they voted left during the European elections - yet the far-right RN swept the June 9 Euro vote with 31.5% prompting President Macron to call a snap general election.
With more than nine million people voting for Le Pen’s National Rally in the first round of the parliamentary elections, Macron has been calling on his increasingly divided centrist camp to support leftist candidates in this weekend’s forthcoming second round, parliamentary elections.
Yet it is the French squad - bravely rising above the banalities uttered by most sportspeople – who are capable of helping swing the election away from the far right.
Another who played his part in the victory over Belgium, Marcus Thuram – son of iconic World Cup-winning defender Lilian, who stood up to then French minister of Interior, the odious Nicolas Sarkozy, after the future President labelled inner-city rioters ‘scum’ saying derisively, “Sarkozy never lived in a Banlieues” – also spoke out against the far right before the match.
Thuram junior - who has nearly 2m followers on Instagram - said: “I understand that some players can come here and just say people should vote, but I don’t think that’s enough, you have to also explain how we got here and the seriousness of the situation.”
While Mbappe had earlier also called for a vote “against extreme views and ideas that divide people,” adding: “We are a generation that can make a difference.
“We see the extremes are knocking on the door of power and we have the opportunity to shape our country’s future.”
With such a stormy political and social backdrop across the border in France, the prospect of the clash against Belgium on a sunny Monday evening in Dusseldorf must have seemed like balm for Les Bleus.
And so it was to prove as the French eased past Domenico Tedesco’s disappointing Red Devils, in a clash that failed to live up to its billing as befitting the second and third ranked sides in the world.
After accumulating only four points in the group stages as Romania earned top spot, Belgium boss Tedesco went with a 4-3-3 formation, with Romelu Lukaku in the middle of the attacking trident flanked by Jeremy Doku and Lois Openda.
With captain Kevin De Bruyne, on his 105th appearance for his country, sitting to the right of Amadou Onana in the centre, and Yannick Carrasco prowling the other channel, Tedesco must have felt, like many, that his attacking options would trouble the French.
The pre-match chatter among seasoned France watchers was that the savvy Deschamps was expected to restore Antoine Griezmann as playmaker for the clash, allowing him to pull the strings as part of the manager’s more prosaic and gritty 4-4-2 formation, while combining Thuram on the right and Mbappé on the left, with the intention that the pair would gel. Arsenal’s Saliba started as part of the backline that had conceded a single goal in three group matches.
Alas, spectators were treated to a niggly, laboured opening - following a passionate rendition of both national anthems - notable for three yellow cards handed out in the first 25 minutes by Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg.
A French trio were on the receiving end, Griezmann, after fouling Jeremy Doku, while Adrien Rabiot also went into the book for an infringement on the same player. Prior to that Nyberg handed Aurelien Tchouaméni a card for dissent.
On 27 minutes De Bruyne tested France keeper Mike Maignan with a low effort that the shotstopper blocked with his feet.
Seven minutes later Thuram’s powerful header missed the target, despite getting ahead of Red Devils’ Leicester defender Wout Faes to meet Kounde’s whipped-in cross, as the teams went into the break goalless.
After the interval, Tchouaméni forced Koen Casteels into a low save as France started the second half in a livelier fashion. Shortly afterwards Mbappe, still sporting a face mask to protect his broken nose sustained in his side’s 1-0 victory over Austria in their opening match, cut inside to unleash a powerful drive that flew over the bar.
Yet Belgium remained dangerous on the break, with De Bruyne sending Carrasco through with an exquisite ball Theo Hernandez did extremely well to block - immediately earning the enthusiastic acclaim of his teammates.
In an increasingly familiar sight, Tchouaméni fired well over the ball again with 21 minutes remaining.
As the game opened up as both sides recoiled at the prospect of another 30 minutes if the scores were level - as did many watching - Red Devils’ former Chelsea striker Lukaku tested Maignan. Prior to Saliba shooting over for France in a crowded box, after working space for an effort from Doku.
Another player who shot over (again) was Mbappe, feeding off Kounde’s pass which appeared to be intended for Griezmann.
Maignan then saved well from De Bruyne, who was freed by an excellent pass from Doku.
However, on 85 minutes it was Muani firing the ball past Casteels via a deflection from the hapless Vertonghen to prompt wild celebrations among the French contingent behind the goal. Not to mention the 25-year-old PSG strikers’ teammates and squad members.
As the clock ticked down, Belgium upped the tempo, but could not find a way to break down the redoubtable French backline. Marshalled it has to be said, exceptionally well by the impressive Saliba, as Deschamps side reached the last eight - to knock Belgium out, and keep Les Bleus record of never having lost to their neighbours in a competitive match since 1981.
Portugal await in an intriguing clash on Friday, while France itself has a far more seismic challenge looming at the ballot box.
Hopefully the on-field exploits of Deschamps team – along with their proud banlieue boys’ commendable courage in speaking out - can play its part in helping to beat the far-right.
@copyright Morning Star newpaper/Layth Yousif