Algiers, November 19: Algerians at home and abroad exploded with joy as the final whistle sounded in Khartoum to send the north African country to its first football World Cup since 1986.
A superb Antar Yahia goal gave Algeria a 1-0 victory over Egypt Wednesday and a place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Cheers broke out around Algeria at the end of the match, after what one supporter, 45-year-old Djamel, called “90 minutes of the worst agonies”.
Hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, flooded into the streets in towns and villages across Algeria, celebrating with flags, fireworks and car horns.
Even a few police officers lost their cool, sounding their sirens to join in the rapture at the triumph of “les Verts” — Algeria’s green-shirted side who beat Egypt 1-0 in the do-or-die playoff in Khartoum.
Around Algiers, fans shouted “Thank you, les Verts”, “One, two, three, viva Algeria” and “We’re going to the World Cup”.
Packed into cars and running through the crowded streets, young men and women — many wrapped in the green and white national flag — beamed with happiness.
“It’s too much, they’ve given us everything,” said Naima, 18, laughing and crying at once.
“Do you have any idea what the tension was like? We’ve shown our support for the team since they were beaten in Cairo on Saturday and now we’ve done it. The dream has come true!” one of her friends shouted.
Huge crowds turned out on the promenade in the western coastal city of Oran and similar scenes of jubilation were reported in other towns and villages around the country.
The mood was very different in Cairo, where the normally traffic-packed streets were deserted during the match.
Young Egyptian supporters took to the streets to bang drums and set off firecrackers after their side’s defeat, but their heart was not in it.
“One day you win, one day you lose,” Egyptian supporter Khaled Hassan said philosophically, referring to his team’s 2-0 win over the “Desert Foxes” in Cairo on Saturday.
In one cafe a man fainted on the final whistle and was put into a taxi by his friends.
In France euphoria reigned in parts of Paris, where crowds of Algerians and French Algerians gathered in the Barbes area to celebrate the win with cheers, flags and firecrackers.
Across the French capital, convoys of cars drove up and down the streets, flying the Algerian flag and sounding their horns, often cheered by passers by.
Horns blared and Algerian music played in the southern French port of Marseille as the city’s sizeable Algerian and French Algerian population celebrated the win.
More than 1,000 people gathered in the centre of the eastern French city of Lyon.
—Agencies