Weighed down by a tense extra-sporting context and the low prestige of the opponent, the Stade de France sounds very hollow this Thursday in Saint-Denis for the Blues' match against Israel. The negative attendance record was even broken.
We have rarely – never – seen a Stade de France like the one on Thursday evening. Because of the security context surrounding the meeting between France and Israel, a week after the incidents on the sidelines of the last Europa League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam, the Dyonisian enclosure sounded very hollow at the start. dispatch, at 8:45 p.m.
Only around 20,000 spectators fill the well-strewn stands, an anomaly for a Blues match. The last crowds of this kind date back more than twenty years: there were between 36,000 and 45,000 spectators in 2003 for the receptions of Cyprus, Turkey, New Zealand (the absolute negative record, with 36,842 spectators) or Israel, already. But we were still well over 20,000 in the evening.
Despite the heavy context surrounding the League of Nations meeting, the France team can officially secure its ticket to the quarter-finals of the competition: it just needs to not lose against Israel. Even a defeat would not prevent France from qualifying if Belgium does not beat Italy at the same time in Brussels.
Romain Daveau Journalist RMC Sport
France
