FRANCE v Switzerland

I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to get into my French venue of choice. I knew London had a large, albeit spread-out, French population and we were heading for London’s number one French sporting venue.

But when I called to ask if we should reserve a place, the affable Frenchman on the other end of the line told me they don’t take bookings. “You just turn up and… voila,” he explained.

And he was right. It was busy, but we just turned up a few minutes before kick-off and… voila. I guessed that the London French must have been watching the game all over the city.

But the atmosphere early on seemed slightly nervous. Maybe it just appeared subdued compared to the crazy Korean enthusiasm, but I guessed that memories of World Cup 2002, when les bleus failed to score a single goal, were preying on French minds.

The one player to spark excitement was young hope Franck Ribery, whose every touch of the ball was met with anticipation, and there was huge excitement when he shot just over.

But, as the wine (and other funny drinks) started to flow, the atmosphere built, with France starting to mount decent attacks towards the end of the first half and into the second. And there were huge cheers when Thierry Henry returned to the pitch after a slight injury scare.

I was still convinced that, until France scored, there would be nerves. As a friendly Algerian bloke admitted to me at half-time, it was hard to know just how well France would do in the tournament. He wasn’t worried about the squad being too old, but was surprisingly modest about the quality of France’s world-class players (Zidane included), and he made the shocking admission that he thought that England were better and that he would be cheering them on too.

Also working on Anglo-French relations were three Englishmen in the crowd, who I took to be Arsenal fans there to support Henry.

In spite of France’s continued failure to score, excitement built in the second half, with the chants of “Allez les bleus” ringing out. And when a girl squeezed through the crowd with a huge suitcase, it seemed strangely in keeping with the event.

There was more and more anticipation as the game reached its climax. Surely France would get the goal their superiority deserved? Almost, as the atmosphere peaked in the 90th minute when substitute Vikash Dhorasoo blazed a shot inches wide of the Swiss post.

But when the ref blew to confirm the poor result, the excitement evaporated, the crowd understandably downhearted; although with South Korea and Togo still to play, surely their first World Cup goal since 1998 can’t be far away.