AFP 
 
 
PARIS, July 10: Thousands of French football fans crammed into the famed Champs-Elysees boulevard in Paris watched in stunned disbelief late on Sunday as their team lost the World Cup final to Italy.

Deflated, and angry at the red-card exit of star player Zinadine Zidane, they milled around in distress after the final whistle blew in Berlin to dash their hopes of victory.

The dejection on their faces spoke volumes. With the game coming down to penalty shootouts, they had harboured hopes right to the end of beating Italy to take the trophy, but a one-goal deficit shattered that.

Zidane's expulsion from the game for an incomprehensible headbutt to the chest of Italian player Marco Materazzi was foremost in the minds of many.

"I just cannot understand what was going through Zidane's head, it just doesn't make any sense," said one fan, Cyrille Bonet.

His brother, Emmanuel, added: "Italy didn't deserve it but it's typical of the Italians, they played terribly for the whole match and then they win it on penalties."

When Italy scored the final penalty settling the game, the atmosphere in cafes, bars, restaurants, homes suddenly went flat -- a far cry from the cheers and tense epithets that accompanied the play.

The scenes in the French capital and other cities contrasted darkly with the scenes of exuberance witnessed in 1998, when France had won the World Cup.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said just before the match that French police were "ready" should the crowds turn violent.

He said 12,000 police and military personnel were mobilised across the country, with 3,000 in Paris alone and another 3,000 in the capital's suburbs.

The security fears were founded: last November, widespread rioting broke out in impoverished suburbs in November last year, prompting a state of emergency, and last Wednesday police made 500 arrests during the celebrations that followed France's semi-final victory over Portugal.