A highly secure and almost empty Nations League match between France and Israel still saw clashes between fans in the stands at the Stade de France.
After incidents with followers at vs Last Thursday, security measures were increased for the League A game in the Europa League.
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This resulted in only 20,000 fans attending the 80,000 capacity stadium in Paris – the lowest attendance ever recorded for a football match.
RMC Sport claims that as many as 4,000 police were deployed at the game, where the Israeli national anthem was whistled before kick-off.
Then, a few minutes after the first whistle, there were fights in the north curve of the stadium involving around 50 people.
The stewards intervened to create a barrier and after about two minutes the situation calmed down.
Several Palestine and Palestine flags were visible throughout the match, while no injuries have been reported from the fighting so far.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez were both present, with the latter reassuring those present in the days leading up to the game.
“I want to reassure those who listen to us while sending a message of determination,” he said.
“We will have the means to react extremely quickly to prevent any disturbance of public order, be it during the game, in the area surrounding the game or on the path of spectators.” We do not tolerate excesses.
“We are in a position to secure the Stade de France, which hosted the Olympics. We learned the lessons from what happened for them.” [between and Real Madrid].”
French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the game and said in advance: “France is organizing a sporting, cultural and intellectual event that it wants to organize and wants to organize.”
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“We do this by protecting artists, athletes and intellectuals and allowing everyone to experience these events.
“We will not give in to this bad wind of anti-Semitism that is blowing across the world.”
On the field the game ended 0-0. Already qualified France faced Italy needing a win and a three-goal haul to top the group.