From our special correspondent in the Bombonera of the Stade de France,
Someone had to come to the cash register one day to settle the hefty bill left on the table of the whole of France by Dibu Martinez and Enzo Fernandez. In the wrong place, at the wrong time, namely at the Stade de France in the quarter-finals of the Olympic rugby sevens tournament, the Pumas took the full brunt of the frustrations of a people who were demanding compensation for the wrongs caused by the Argentina goalkeeper in Qatar in 2022, and by the Chelsea midfielder guilty of singing a racist chant with the entire Albiceleste a few weeks ago.
For two days now, the Argentinians have been booed copiously every time they appear on the Dionysian pitch. Without really understanding, they had until now accepted it and even enjoyed it, like the player Marcos Moneta. “I don’t know if they are hurt because of Messi and the World Cup or because they don’t like us. Maybe they are afraid of us, I don’t know.”
Meh, that wasn’t really the trend. In a prophetic statement after the defeat against Fiji, in the afternoon, Stephen Parez urged his team to “run over them (the Argentinians)”. No, the fear was clearly on the other side. On Twitter, it was the fear of playing the host country, of being robbed by the referees, who would necessarily be won over to the French cause. “It will be an 8 against 7 match”, could be read among other things.
“To show them that it was our home”
Miscalculation, it was a match at 69,007 against 7. A crazy atmosphere, marked by all the subjectivity that sports chauvinism allows in an Olympic context. Enough to make your hair stand on end as soon as the starting 7 is announced. It is difficult to assess to what extent the players of the French team were galvanized by the spectacle offered by the delirious French supporters, even if the perfect first period, with the knife between the teeth, remains a good indicator of the collective enthusiasm. And one, and two, and three tries. All converted, while France had been dipping into the exercise since the start of the tournament.
21-0 in one half. Unreal, lunar, jubilant. “I wanted to show that I’m at home,” emphasizes Andy Timo, one of the scorers of the evening. “I don’t score a lot and so I show it a little. Especially since it’s a quarter-final against Argentina, I wanted to show that it was our home.”
« “Playing in a stadium like that gives me emotions that I have never experienced in my life,” conceded Aaron Grandidier Nkanang in the mixed zone. “I never imagined that I would one day play in front of 69,000 people. It’s only the quarter, we still have a long way to go, but it gives us crazy emotions. I was almost in tears at the end of the match. Thank you to the supporters for carrying us like that, I don’t have the words.” »
The effect eventually ran out of steam in the second half, we even thought these Argentine rogues were out to cool us down like never before. But the entry of Antoine Dupont, initially synonymous with a drop in intensity, ultimately proved to be a lifesaver. The Toulouse player first allowed us to gain precious seconds when the Pumas had come back to seven points, before wrapping up the match at the buzzer with a move that was more madness than audacity. Here are the Blues in the semi-finals. Yes, only. The ambient euphoria and the joy of the French players after the match were such that one could have believed that Olympic gold had already been won. In a way, that’s not wrong. Beating Argentina with panache and according to their rules is already a medal in itself.
Source: www.20minutes.fr
