There were over 70,000 supporters at Wembley, with England fans joining their French counterparts in singing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, and observing an impeccable minute’s silence.
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While paying tribute to England, Deschamps singled out Lassana Diara, who lost his cousin in the terrorist attacks but insisted on staying in the squad, and was given a standing ovation when he made a substitute appearance 20 minutes from full-time. We had a lack of aggression and concentration but that is normal. It was more about solidarity.
In a speech to his fellow dignitaries before the game, Dyke said: “Tonight is an opportunity for us, the English, to say to the people of Paris and to the people of France, ‘We are with you, we support you – tonight we are Parisians, tonight we are French”.
The decisive goals sandwiched the interval: Spurs’ rising star Dele Alli curled a delightful shot (via a slight deflection) past his club colleague Hugo Lloris into the top corner before the break; captain Wayne Rooney converted a Raheem Sterling cross with a clinical volleyed finish early in the second period.
“He is in quite a bit of pain”, the 1998 World Cup victor said of Martial. “But it was very hard to play in, we remain human beings”.
“We felt very, very strong emotions, powerful emotions”, Deschamps added.
“I thought everything was very well done, the players getting together for the minute’s silence to the two teams being together”.
“We see the game as a show of solidarity and we see it also as a show of defiance”. Hodgson said that he had been aware of the security alert that had caused Tuesday’s friendly between Germany and the Netherlands in Hanover to be cancelled, but said: “We had faith in the security measures being put in place here”.
Prime Minister David Cameron said it was important for Britain to stand side-by-side with its neighbour, the world cup winners from 1998. “But it’s France that has to live through these frightful moments”. We spent 48 hours together at Clairefontaine watching TV and being on the internet.
Deschamps did say that he believed the injury to be “just a knock” rather than anything more serious, such as a broken bone in the teenager’s injured foot which could keep him out for an extended period of time.
The others were Eric Dier, 21, winning his second cap and making his first England start, Harry Kane, 22, collecting his eighth cap, and Lloris, who has played over 70 times for France.
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There had been debate about whether the game should have been played, despite being given the go-ahead by the president of the French Football Association Noel Le Graet on Saturday.
