Euro 2016: France keen to keep fans on board as fight gets hot

French players át a training session in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, southwest of Paris.(Photo: AFP)

Like a theatre audience demanding to be entertained, French football fans can be a fickle lot.

The team will be keen that tradition doesn’t remerge on Sunday when they take on Iceland in the quarter-finals of the European Championship. Iceland, after all, are extremely popular among neutrals after the 2-1 victory over England in the Round of 16.

Les Bleus have often endured a fractious relationship with their fans. Relations are better, but still precarious.

Last weekend in Lyon, the players were jeered off at half time against Ireland, when trailing 1-0. In the group game against Albania, the vocal frustration was evident until Antoine Griezmann’s 90th-minute goal.

Any frayed nerves among the French contingent at the Stade de France this Sunday will surely contrast with those of Iceland’s devoted fans, who will be shouting their traditional Viking chant and cranking up the pressure on France’s players.

That France have failed to score in the first half in this tournament may not be just a coincidence. Players start games nervously as if trying to avoid mistakes. Chances are snatched at, the body language is tense and cagey, the fans rarely indulgent.

Over the years, games have often mapped out the same way at the national stadium. A flag-waving rendition of La Marseillaise — the national anthem — followed by some hearty early encouragement and then a tense, watchful silence. If France fail to impress, jeers and boos ring out from the stands. On Sunday, they will hope they remain supportive.