Hosts at fever pitch for their thrilling opener

Opening matches in World Cups have not always sent the spirits soaring ? when England's footballers played Uruguay in 1966, a nation yawned, then fell asleep before half-time ? but a thoroughly unscientific opinion poll carried out in the bars and boulevards of this wonderful city yesterday revealed an unprecedented level of expectation ahead of tonight's curtain-raiser between France and Argentina. "The thought of it makes me shudder," said Raphael Ibanez, the captain of the host country. If it is having this effect on a hardened warrior like Ibanez, heaven knows how the South Americans are feeling.