PARIS 16 Jul (ANA) - France's victorious World Cup team is to receive the country's highest accolade, the Légion d'Honneur, the French presidency has announced.

 

France defeated Croatia 4-2 in the football final in Moscow on Sunday - its second World Cup win in 20 years.

 

Crowds of fans lined the Champs-Elysées in central Paris to give the team a heroes' welcome.

 

The players will be honoured with a parade on the capital's main artery and a presidential reception.

 

The World Cup winners, who have now landed back in Paris, will take an open-top bus along the avenue later on Monday.

 

Captain Hugo Lloris and coach Didier Deschamps were the first to emerge from the plane, raising the competition's golden trophy to the cheering crowds of fans who gathered to greet them.

 

Some 3,000 people have been invited to the reception at the Elysée presidential palace, including 1,000 youths from football clubs around the country such as Bondy, the Paris suburb where 19-year-old forward Kylian Mbappé first started his career, "in order that they can welcome the Blues".(ANA)

FA/ANA/16 July 2018------