As England's World Cup campaign hung in the balance last night, England was once again cheered on by a huge 15,000 fans in the 36,000 capacity Geoffroy Guichard stadium in St Etienne.
The atmosphere in the ground was electric, with the 5,000 Argentinians noisy before kick-off and during the match and the English roaring their side on and dominating the stadium as they had in Marseille, Toulouse and Lens.
The English supporters had enjoyed a relaxed day of singing and chanting in the bars and squares of St Etienne. The atmosphere noticeably more relaxed than for any of the team's previous games.
Interest in the game in England was phenomenal, the only comparison possible was with the Euro 96 semi-final against Germany in 1996 when England lost on penalties watched by a record 26.2 million people.
Television experts were predicting an even bigger armchair army, surpassing the record by two million for last night's game.
The Automobile Association said yesterday that traffic in England was down by 80 per cent with a fake rush hour an hour earlier than normal as fans hurried to get home for the match.
Tickets for the game were changing hands for £300 in the afternoon, with prices dropping sharply just before kick-off as touts unloaded the last remaining tickets for face value to the brave few who had hung around at the stadium until the last minute.
The majority of ticketless fans had already moved to the centre of St Etienne to bars and cafes to watch the match. The big screen in St Etienne had been closed yesterday to avoid a gathering of rival fans.
Police were on alert for groups of local youths who had caused problems in town on Monday night seeking out English fans to attack. Six Swiss fans were injured when they were attacked by French youths, and of the 14 arrests made in St Etienne on Monday only two were British and they were for drunkenness rather than violence.
British police sources said that there had been very little movement of fans from England suggesting that most of the expected 20,000 England fans would arrive on charters or were already in France.
French police moved in to break up clashes between English supporters and local youths early today, an hour after England's defeat by Argentina. Some 100 English fans and the same number of locals threw bottles and chairs at each other in Saint Etienne's central Jean Jaures square. There were no apparent injuries. Some 30 people - British, French and Argentinians - were arrested.