Wave Of Optimism Sweeps France As World Cup Unites The Nation

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2018 ) :French fans dared to dream of a World Cup victory on Sunday as they prepared to watch the game on a sunny summer weekend after a tournament that has lifted spirits and led to a rare sense of national unity.

Football fever has slowly built over the last four weeks as the country took its young national team to heart, with ecstatic scenes after their semi-final victory, a sign of the country's hunger for success.

On what is a traditional holiday weekend to mark France's national day, many families will watch from camp sites or hotels, while giant screens have been erected in 230 fan zones across the country under exceptionally tight security.

The biggest gathering of all is expected in Paris where 90,000 will converge on a fanzone next to the Eiffel Tower -- walking distance from the Champs Elysees boulevard where all great national triumphs are celebrated.

On Tuesday, when France beat Belgium to qualify for the final, hundreds of thousands of revellers gathered on the Champs Elysees.

And if Les Bleus end up striking gold on Sunday, police expect the numbers there to be far higher.

With success on the pitch, a country riven by tensions and still shaken by a string of attacks that have killed nearly 250 people since 2015 has been able to revel in a newfound feeling of togetherness.

"We must be proud to be French! We don't say it enough," star striker Antoine Griezmann reminded his compatriots on Friday.

Despite France's enviable lifestyle, it has lacked "joie de vivre" for years, with numerous surveys finding the French some of the most pessimistic people on Earth.

Much of this is down to decades of high unemployment, mounting public debt and the homegrown terror threat of late, which has fuelled immigration fears and rise of far-right parties.

The national football squad, most of whom are non-white, has provided a tonic to a divisive debate about French identity after their impeccable performance on and off the pitch as national ambassadors.

"France today is a France full of colours," star midfielder Paul Pogba, who is French of Guinean origin, said last week.

"We all feel French, we're all happy to wear this jersey.

"France is beautiful as it is, that's how we love it, and that's how we'll always love it." Such talk has led to inevitable comparisons with 1998 when France last won the World Cup, celebrating diversity with its "Black, Blanc, Beur" (Black, White, north African) team led by Zinedine Zidane.

The optimism was short-lived, however.

-