Paris (AFP)

"Viva Algeria": on the Champs-Elysees in Paris as on the Old Port in Marseille, the supporters of the Algerian football team let their joy to the victory of their team on Thursday with great reinforcements of songs and horn blows.

The party was however tarnished around midnight by the looting of some shops near the Champs-Elysees by several dozen people before the intervention of the police, said an AFP journalist.

At the last penalty shoot-out against Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations (CAN), Algerian flags have blossomed magically on the Champs-Elysees and the horns resonated from all sides trucks, cars, scooters ...

"We won!": The news is spreading fast on the top of the avenue. Clusters of teenagers form at the star's place. Smartphone in hand, they film and sing "One, two, three, Viva Algeria!"

"What's going on?", Asks a foreign tourist, totally taken aback but still films in turn.

The police are trying to contain the crowd on the sidewalk but it is not obvious because it is galvanized by more and more cars that pass by honking.

Many tourists are carried away and hum the stubborn air of the slogan of the fans, without knowing what that means.

Said, 16, Ryad Mahrez's jersey, captain of the Fennecs on the back. "Tonight, Paris is Algeria! It's going to be crazy! We're going to win this CAN!"

Same enthusiasm of Djamal, 18, in Marseille: "I do not believe it's a dream, after the World Cup to France, we will win the CAN!", He exults, a big Algerian flag on the shoulders while the Canebière suffocates under the smoke.

Some 6,000 supporters gathered on the Old Port, according to the police headquarters. Police fired a few tear gas canisters to contain the crowd, an AFP journalist said.

In the district of Guillotière in Lyon, Mehdi also sees the team in the final, "and we will win, it's been 29 years that we expect it!"

- "We are going to party" -

Youssef does not return: the young man of Moroccan origin, had chosen the Institute of the Arab World (IMA) on the banks of the Seine to come watch the game and he has the impression of being "at the stadium".

"There is an atmosphere of madness with music and everything," says the maintenance technician at the IMA.

"We were overwhelmed by success," says Romain Pigenel, director of the institute's strategy, referring to a "viral phenomenon". "Tuesday at 4 pm in five minutes several hundred places have been sold".

In Barbès in the north of the capital, cafes and restaurants have been stormed.

"I'm shaking because we're qualified, we were stressed, we missed a lot of chances," said Ryad, a 46-year-old RATP officer who kisses his Algerian flag.

Behind him, red and green smoke are lit to the rhythm of the songs and firecrackers burst.

"It's the best, they won," says Baoubche 67, who came specially from Courbevoie with his two friends and launches youyous to celebrate the victory. "We're going to party, our girlfriends are waiting for us at home."

On the top of the Champs-Elysees, where the jubilant crowd is concentrated, Samia, a mother, holds her young son by the hand, and calmly looks at the unbroken flow of cars and flags.

"It was not an easy match, so that's why it's like that (the crowd and the noise), we're a proud people, and we do not always have the opportunity to be proud of it. to be Algerian so when it happens, it becomes a little crazy. "

meh-sva-jp-ppy / tib / sma

© 2019 AFP