At Paris 2024, French fans seek soccer revenge amid Argentine animosity

BORDEAUX : Bordeaux may be known for its fine wines and delicate cuisine, but on Friday it becomes the staging ground for a gritty grudge football match between home favourites France and World Cup champions Argentina.
A match-up between the football heavyweights would usually have drawn thousands of spectators to the centre of the southwestern city. But ahead of the Olympics match the atmosphere was more in line with the gloomy fortunes of local side Girondins de Bordeaux, who were relegated to France’s 4th tier over financial mismanagement last month.
A handful of French fans with painted faces and wearing their national shirts ambled around in anticipation.
Even fewer Argentinians, usually boisterous, were taking advantage of Bordeaux’ historical sites and restaurants that were fuller of summer tourists than of the kind of Olympic hordes seen in Paris.
“The football tournament here has been disappointing because there is not much interest and the town hall hasn’t advertised it much,” said one man bringing his young son to the game who gave only his first name Jeremy. “But it’s Argentina and we have to show them after everything that’s been said.”
That desire for revenge is likely to be more felt at the 42,000-capacity Matmut Atlantique stadium.
The two countries’ rivalry has escalated since the 2022 World Cup final, when Argentina beat then reigning champions France on penalties, avenging a second-round loss against France four years earlier.
That 2022 final, which ended 3-3 after extra-time, was overshadowed by racist chants from some Argentinian supporters in the stands.
In the aftermath, the Latin American sides’ players also mocked France, the French team and superstar Kylian Mbappe.
Despite being an under-23 contest, three of the Argentinian players from that day are in Friday’s squad.
Things have taken a turn for the worse after Argentina won the Copa America in July, after which some players were caught singing the same racist chants targeting French players of African descent.
“With everything that’s happened recently, all the French have felt it,” Crystal Palace forward Jean-Philippe Mateta told reporters after France beat New Zealand earlier this week.
The anger in France has been heartfelt and already at the Olympics local fans have made their feelings clear.
In Argentina’s opening game against Morocco, their national anthem was drowned out by a chorus of boos. Its rugby sevens team, which played France in the earlier rounds, also faced a hostile crowd.
As a warm-up, French fans gave Argentina’s handball players a taste of things to come as they were crushed by France on Friday morning.
After coming out of the Bordeaux soccer shop on Friday, one Argentinian family that had travelled for the Olympics and to see the game dismissed France’s chances and said the noise around the game was nonsense.
“We win today. The French have been bad with us especially in Paris. Not so much here. They were booing and angry, but we will win,” said Manuela, whose son wore the number 9 shirt of World Cup winner Julian Alvarez.