But longtime Spain supporter Ben MacManus walked into a Dunedin pub before sunrise yesterday with little hopes his team would win.
However, by 9am, it was clear Spain had delivered an unlikely upset and booted the favoured French team out of the Fifa World Cup with a score of 2-0.
Mr MacManus was standing in the Law Courts, in Stuart St, as the whistle blew simply at a loss for words.
“I came into this match expecting France to win, France has a lot of firepower.
“Honestly, the win hasn’t set in yet - when you prepare yourself for two very good sides, it’s almost really hard to get ready for a win.”
He said it was always going to be a tough match for Spain and France needed to take their opportunities in the second half, but they did not.
For now, he would be watching replays of the match over the weekend and was pumped for the final on Monday.
He was hoping for a Spain versus England match-up - a repeat of the women’s Fifa World Cup final.
He watched the women’s team play in Sydney during the tournament in 2023, which was a massive highlight for him.
“I first became a Spanish fan in the mid-2000s - a lot of teams had star players, but Spain were not so much stars, but had collective teamwork and that’s attracted me to supporting Spain.
“It’s not so much about supporting a team that always wins, it’s about supporting a team that you enjoy watching, whoever that may be.”
In Wānaka as the sun rose over the lake, cries of “Allez!” (“let’s go!”) grew increasingly intense.
Around 50 French fans had gathered for the game, ready to cheer on the tournament’s heavy favourites, but as Mikel Oyarzabal’s penalty at 22 minutes was followed by Pedro Porro goal for Spain in the second half, the atmosphere grew funereal.
As the final whistle blew and France were eliminated, it was not only French fans with a sense of deflation.
Lake Bar owner Peter Byrne said as a business owner, he had been taking a keen interest in the tournament, and was highly aware of the impact of each result on revenue.
“The ideal scenario for us would have been an England versus France final on Monday morning.
“We were hoping France would win because that would be ideal for a great atmosphere.
“Take nothing away from the Spanish, but that’s dampened the final a bit for us,” Mr Byrne said.
Asked if being in New Zealand while France had unified around their team made him homesick, Gayle Core, a crepe-maker from Besancon near the Swiss border said, “a little bit”.
“The atmosphere in France is completely different and with it being Bastille Day yesterday and the game today, I’ve been seeing a lot of videos of France.”
