Tension outside the Stade de France in Paris before Euro 2016’s big kick-off translated into nervousness on the pitch and in the stands, before Dimitri Payet sparked relief and celebrations for the hosts with a glorious late winner.
The game had begun under a barely concealed layer of concern over strikes and security fears, exacerbated by news of skirmishes involving England fans in Marseille, but Didier Deschamps’s young France team eventually achieved lift-off with a 2-1 victory over a dogged Romania.
Afterwards, Payet said he had felt “a lot of stress, a lot of pressure”. “If someone had told me it would have gone like that I wouldn’t have believed it,” added the West Ham United forward.
On the approach to the national stadium in Saint-Denis, which was the target for three suicide bombers almost exactly seven months ago amid terrorist attacks on the capital that killed 130 people, home fans draped tricolors around their shoulders and donned novelty chicken hats, but the usual celebratory air was undercut by a mix of defiance and trepidation.
Yet once inside, 75,000 noisy fans waved thousands of French flags and a sizeable Romanian contingent responded in kind, forming a bold block of yellow at one end, as they tried to focus on the fact that a football tournament featuring 24 teams playing 51 matches across 10 stadiums was about to break out.
All the accoutrements of a modern major sporting event were present and correct – the sponsors’ branding, the all but sold-out stands, the painted faces and the garish wigs – but there was also an impatience to get under way and park the concerns of the buildup.
Each new European Championship brings with it inflation – this time in its expansion to 24 teams and 2.5 million fans – and that extended to the opening ceremony last night. DJ David Guetta, who the previous night had played a free concert for 80,000 people under the Eiffel Tower, provided the music.
French patrol planes flew overhead, 144 can-can dancers in dresses emblazoned with the French flag cavorted around the pitch, an Eiffel Tower banner was unfurled and a 7.5 sq km French garden overlay were all employed to try to create a party atmosphere in stark contrast to the ring of steel outside.
But earlier, at least one metro train was evacuated as a precaution and the stadium was cleared in mid-afternoon to allow police with sniffer dogs to sweep through before the arrival of the French president, François Hollande.
He had also been present on the night of the attacks in November when France faced Germany, and it was when he left his seat in the VIP area that night that many of those present in the stadium knew something serious had happened.
A huge security operation is under way across the country, with 90,000 police, army and security staff responding to the heightened threat level. A security force of at least 13,000 is on duty in the capital alone.
Organisers had pleaded with fans to arrive up to three hours before kick-off, opening the gates early and promising entertainment within the stadiums, but strikes that have frustrated ministers and left rubbish piling up in central Paris also affected trains to the Stade de France.
When the action on the pitch finally started, a swashbuckling France took the game to Romania but failed to puncture their gutsy defence before half-time as the crowd began again to get edgy.
Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud gave the hosts the lead shortly before the hour mark but Romania levelled from the penalty spot, before Payet stepped up to arrow his shot into the top corner and prompted a lusty rendition of the La Marseillaise, sung as much in relief as in triumph.
