England 2 France 0

Match 44/15/1249 - Tuesday, 17th November 2015 - International

England (1) 2 Alli 39, Rooney 47
France (0) 0
Attendance: 71,233

Entrance: £30
Programme: £6
Mileage: 100/3,146

Match Report

Prior to Friday’s atrocities in Paris, despite having already bought a ticket, I had little interest in this international. I’ve long bemoaned Wembley in this column as lacking in atmosphere, inhabited by drunks and thugs and serving up a series of absolutely dreadful football matches that made for a largely unpleasant experience.

After the Paris attacks, my first thoughts, in regards to the game, were that it should be cancelled. There was an element of risk to the public and it had to be questioned whether the French would want to play. Initially, it seemed that was the case but over the weekend the French Football Federation stated they wanted the game to go ahead, a show of defiance if you like, and from that point a morbid curiosity in how this delicate situation would be handled kicked in.

Police with automatic weapons on Wembley Way was an early signed that this was to be no ordinary evening. The pre-match ceremonies were to include the singing of La Marseillaise after, rather than before, God Save The Queen with the request that it is sung by everybody; the raising of a mosaic that would form the tricolor and the laying of wreathes by the respective manager’s Roy Hodgson and Didier Deschamps alongside the Duke of Cambridge and ended with a minute’s silence. Just how would the Wembley crowd react, let’s face it every opponent’s anthem has been booed since the mists of time. The answer was with the greatest of respect.

The French players were applauded as they took to the field for their pre-match warm-up and cheered when their starting line-up was announced. If you’ve no French in your vocabulary, La Marseillaise is not the easiest of songs to sing even if the words are projected onto a giant screen, but Wembley did its best, even if, like myself, you chose just to la-la along with the on-field choir.

Following the laying of the wreathes which remained on the edge of the technical area during the match, the two squads mingled together for photographs to the accompaniment of loud applause whilst the silence was observed perfectly with only the drone of overhead helicopters to be heard as the players formed a circle in the centre of the pitch. Every moment had been treated with total respect as football, and its supporters, looked ISIL in the face and defiantly said, life goes on.

The match itself produced one of the better performances in recent times from England, whose starting line-up was almost ludicrously young. Unfortunately, there will always be the caveat that the French hearts were not in the game and this showed as at times they looked decidedly ordinary.

Hopefully though the starting debut of Dele Alli will not get lost among the other remembrances of this day. The Tottenham youngster was outstanding and his 39th minute goal should live long in the memory. He initially won the ball in a midfield challenge with Morgan Schneiderlin and when Wayne Rooney laid a pass back to him, his dipping shot found the top corner beating his club mate, Hugo Lloris.

Rooney added a second after 47 minutes with a volley after Alli had won another tackle in the middle of the park and sent Rahim Sterling away down the left to supply the cross for the goal.

The match drifted away into the night with the usual raft of substitutions, one of which, the introduction of Lassana Diarra, who had lost his cousin in the attack, brought heart warming applause.

Walking back along Wembley Way, with England and French supporters side-by-side, I was reflecting on a decision made that this would be the end of my time as an England member and having the thought that if every game had been blessed with this atmosphere I would not be making this choice. So sad that it took a tragedy of this magnitude to engender the feel-good factor into Wembley.