Berlin, July 8 (DPA) After France defeated Portugal in the World Cup semi-final, a trio of French fans celebrated the achievement on a lawn outside the state-of-the-art Munich stadium. They stood to attention in a straight line, bellowed out 'Allez Les Blues' at the top of their voice while proudly urinating in full view of the passing throngs.
In France itself, 500,000 people crammed into the Champs Elysees to mark the triumph and to indulge in the national pastime of hurling cobblestones at the police.
At the nearby Opera station of the Paris metro, a supporter died when he climbed on top of a train and foolishly tried to hop on to another train. He missed and was electrocuted on the tracks.
In Lyon, a second man died in the pre-dawn hours when he jumped into the Saone River from a bridge and drowned. He had made the leap after betting friends that he would perform the feat if France won the match.
Other uniquely French touch to the World Cup include the waving of inflatable cylinders that are supposed to resemble baguettes, and the parading around the perimeter of the stadiums of a massive bus painted in red white and blue.
The bus blares the national anthem over its loudspeakers at a deafening volume, exceeded only by the decibel level of a fearsome air-horn that by now must have caused the driver certifiable deafness.
One traditionally French celebration has been stymied by the stringent World Cup security.
French fans love to release a cockerel, their national symbol, on to the pitch during games, but have apparently been unable to sneak one in through the phalanx of security measures in Germany.
Like the fans of other nations, French supporters drape themselves in the national colours for the games. But one fan went a bit far after the round of last 16 victory against Spain when he pledged not to take off his lucky tricolour until France was victorious in the final.
There is no way you would catch any self-respecting Italy fan doing something in such bad taste. In fact, Italian fans are so fashion conscious that few of them even deign to wear something as gauche as the national football jersey.
For them, the national uniform is Gucci shoes, designer jeans and a tasteful Dolce Gabanna shirt.
Beer vendors at the stadium are unlikely to be happy about the contestants. Neither the French nor the Italians are world championship material when it comes to drinking beer.
And even if the world's largest beer company could magically turn its brew into decent red wine, it would not fare much better.
While the French are partial to a bottle or two, the Italian fans are parsimonious drinkers. Their drug of choice at football games is marijuana - hence the distinctly pungent and sweet smell that wafts from the stands where the rowdy Italian supporters gather.
Italians are notoriously grumpy fans and often view football as a way of venting their frustration at Italian society. The object of their scorn is always the referee, with the phrase 'arbitro cornuto' (the referee is a 'cuckold') among the favourite parts of their lexicon.
Fans of the national team underwent a crisis of semantics several years ago when their traditional chant of Forza Italia was hijacked by billionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi as the name of his political party. Since he was also the boss of AC Milan, the chant immediately became taboo for supporters of other teams.
Italian fans are highly politicised. Hardcore supporters of teams like Lazio, AC Roma and Inter Milan have well-documented ties with fascist groups and are among the leading exponents of the shameful acts of hooting monkey chants whenever a player of African descent touches the ball - even if he is playing for their own team.
When their team wins, Italian fans like to cram as may people as possible onto their vehicles, careen through the streets waving flags and honking their horns until they get to the town square where they all pile out and jump into the fountains.
© 2006 DPA | 
