At the end of September, Ms Alliot-Marie will host an EU seminar, in the heavily Muslim Paris banlieue of Saint-Denis, to discuss what to do.

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Since then, between banlieue riots and talk of burqa bans, France has struggled to integrate its minorities. (Of the 23-man Algerian squad, 17 are French-born.) The team seems to reflect these tensions, with rumours of tribal divisions.

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