--- title: France Goes Wild In The Streets After Their World Cup Win description: Liberté, égalité, football party. canonical: https://time.com/5335553/france-world-cup-fans/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-11T15:50:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:46.893Z og:title: France Goes Wild In the Streets After Their World Cup Win og:description: Liberté, égalité, football party. og:url: https://time.com/5335553/france-world-cup-fans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd335359a4f204bd1/6989351a86f68ebea06e99f1/gettyimages-996294130.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: FIFA World Cup 2018 - Feature - Paris og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: France Goes Wild In the Streets After Their World Cup Win twitter:description: Liberté, égalité, football party. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd335359a4f204bd1/6989351a86f68ebea06e99f1/gettyimages-996294130.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # France Goes Wild In the Streets After Their World Cup Win by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 11, 2018 3:50 PM UTC  FIFA World Cup 2018, final round, semi-finals: France vs. Belgium. Fans celebrate on the Champs Elysee after the victory of the French team in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup. Photo: Leo Novel/dpa (Photo by Leo Novel/picture alliance via Getty Images) FIFA World Cup 2018, final round, semi-finals: France vs. Belgium. Fans celebrate on the Champs Elysee after the victory of the French team in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup. Photo: Leo Novel/dpa (Photo by Leo Novel/picture alliance via Getty Images)picture alliance—picture alliance via Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 11, 2018 3:50 PM UTC The moment that Samuel Umtiti sunk a soccer ball into the goal to catapult the French national team to victory [over Belgium](http://time.com/money/5333495/watch-world-cup-2018-france-vs-belgium-online-free/), the tens of thousands of fans who had packed the Champs-Élysées in Paris to watch the match erupted into a wild celebration. To mark the fact that France is heading to the final of the [World Cup](http://time.com/5333146/neymar-challenge/) for the first time since 2006. There was cheering, dancing, and raucous celebrating that filled the streets of the French capitol for hours. Eventually, the celebration turned from fun to fraught, which was too much for the city police, as, [according to _The Telegraph_](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/11/fans-clash-riot-police-french-world-cup-celebrations-turn-ugly/)_,_ some fans threw bottles and other projectiles. Riot police launched smoke grenades into the crowd to disperse the fans. There were several reported injuries and at least one arrest. France last won the World Cup in 1998 when the country hosted the tournament. If they win again, hopefully the crowds will give the police no cause to break up the party. Whether you’re rooting for Umtiti, Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann, or France as a whole the party will continue when France faces off against either [England](http://time.com/5333087/david-lammy-trump-uk-visit/) or Croatia in the [World Cup](http://time.com/5334625/world-cup-2018-england-rubber-chicken/) final on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET. > [](https://twitter.com/HerWonkEye/status/1016801102753394692) > [](https://twitter.com/globeechos/status/1016799838451765248) > [](https://twitter.com/ALeaument/status/1016801971364384770) > [](https://twitter.com/Stef%5FPouchoy/status/1016801486213468160) > [](https://twitter.com/SONTSports/status/1016774963703844864) > [](https://twitter.com/AGenesir/status/1016777019009445890) > [](https://twitter.com/AlejandroGongo1/status/1016916094437740546) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5335553/france-world-cup-fans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5335553/france-world-cup-fans/"},"headline":"France Goes Wild In the Streets After Their World Cup Win","datePublished":"2018-07-11T15:50:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:46.893Z","description":"Liberté, égalité, football party.","url":"https://time.com/5335553/france-world-cup-fans/","keywords":["Newsfeed","France","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd335359a4f204bd1/6989351a86f68ebea06e99f1/gettyimages-996294130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd335359a4f204bd1/6989351a86f68ebea06e99f1/gettyimages-996294130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FIFA World Cup 2018 - Feature - Paris","caption":"FIFA World Cup 2018 - Feature - Paris","creditText":"picture alliance—picture alliance via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5335553/france-world-cup-fans/","name":"France Goes Wild In the Streets After Their World Cup Win"}}]}] ```