French citizens celebrate semi-final win at Frankie's Bar

FRENCH brothers Josue, Jean Daniel and Elie Ngom, along with their friend Jessey Pierrot, celebrated France’s 2-0 victory over Morocco in the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final at Frankie’s Bar in Woodbrook on Wednesday.

The Ngom brothers and Pierrot, who are in TT for one week, were singing and jumping after the final whistle.

Defending champions France will play Argentina in the final on Sunday at 11 am (TT time). Both teams are aiming for their third World Cup title. France won in 1998 and 2018 and Argentina were victorious in 1978 and 1986.

“It has been amazing. People are waiting for this for a long time…it will be great for the people,” Josue said.

“The French team that you see it represents Paris, it represents all of France. We come from Paris and we are proud of this team.”

It will be a showdown between two of the most talented players in world football as Argentina captain Lionel Messi and French striker Kylian Mbappe will be aiming to lead their teams to victory. The players both play for Paris Saint-Germain FC in France.

“Messi is playing at Paris, so we know him very well. I love Messi,” Josue said.

He knows Messi is one of the best players of all time, but called Mbappe the “new generation.”

Pierrot said, “We feel extremely thrilled. We already knew our team was going to make the cut, but to the able to celebrate here in Trinidad only adds to the joy that we are already feeling.”

Morocco surprised many by making it to the semi-finals. Pierrot said, “We really appreciate the journey of the Moroccan team, but the outcome was already written.”

France faced adversity before the tournament kicked off as many of their star players are missing the World Cup because of injury including 2022 Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba.

“The French team that you see here is the B team, not the A side…there is a lot of talent on the bench,” Josue said.

Both Jean Daniel and Elie said if Argentina were not facing France in the final they would have liked to see Messi lift the title, but they can’t turn their back on Les Bleus (France’s nickname).