Back to the Soccer Newsfeed

Four Countries. Two Games. One Goal.

They gathered beneath giant screens in London, packed out bars in Brussels, filled the Old Town in Dubrovnik and the Vieux Port in Marseille. They painted their faces and wrapped flags round their shoulders. They bought plastic glasses of beer to throw in celebration, or down in sorrow. They crossed their fingers, and they held their breath.

Abdel Benzaim hands a France flag to a patron outside his shop in Marseille, France, before the World Cup semifinal between France and Belgium.
A bar in Saint-Gilles, close to Brussels city center.Virginie Nguyen for The New York Times
A cafe in London before the match.