The 1971 Coupe de France victory

Route to the Final

• Round of 64 : Stade Rennais UC 4 - 1 US Quevillaise
• Round of 32 : Stade Rennais UC 2 - 0 Entente BFN
• Round of 16 :
  • 1st Leg : Stade Rennais UC 1 - 0 CA Mantais
  • Return Leg : CA Mantais 1 - 1 Stade Rennais UC
• Quarter-finals :
  • 1st Leg : AS Monaco 2 - 0 Stade Rennais UC
  • Return Leg : Stade Rennais UC 4 - 0 AS Monaco
• Semi-finals :
  • 1st Leg: Olympique de Marseille 1 - 0 Stade Rennais UC
  • Return Leg : Stade Rennais UC 2 - 1 Olympique de Marseille
  • Penalty Shootouts : Stade Rennais 3 - 1 Olympique de Marseille
• Final : Stade Rennais 1 - 0 Olympique Lyonnais

The Winning Team

- Standing: Bernard, Cosnard, Chlosta, Cédolin, Cardiet, Aubour & Garcia
- Squatting : Naumovic, Guy, Lenoir, Keruzoré, Betta & Rico.

The Final - Match Details

- June 20th, 1971 in Colombes(Stade Yves du Manoir)
- Referee: M. Vigliani René
- Stade Rennais UC 1 - 0 Olympique Lyonnais
- Half-time : 1-0

• 1 - 0 (63’) : Valette fouls Guy in the penalty area. The striker transforms the kick and puts Rennes in the lead.

Game Summary

The final starts on a rather sluggish pace, in Colombes. Rennes is having the best occasions, but doesn’t manage to make a real difference. The Bretons are mainly building on their collective ability, while Lyon is rather counting on their attacking trio, composed of Di Nallo, Felix and Chiesa.
After the break, things start to really get going. On the 55th minute, Felix heads a corner close but the ball rattles Marcel Aubour’s cross bar (picture below). Seconds later, the “Rouge et Noirs” are back in Lyon’s penalty area and manages to score, but the goal is disallowed for an offside position. A long interruption will follow, the Rennes player furiously contesting the referee’s decision.
After a few minutes, the match can restart and soon, the Rennais are all over attacking the Lyon goal. Logically, they opened they unlock the scoreboard just after the hour of play (1-0, 63’), through Andre Guy’s penalty, executing the sentence himself after having been shoved in the penalty area.
Despite many chances at the end of the games, mainly to Rennes, the scoreline won’t change. The Coupe de France makes her way to Brittany for the second time in less than 10 years, in an atmosphere of pure jubilation.
Source : Fédération Française de Football

Testimony

- Alain Cosnard (Rennes right back) : «It’s engraved in my memory, and everybody still talks about it. One of the best memories in this adventure is our difficult qualification against Mantes-La-Ville in the Round of 16. It was supposed to be the easiest game and we were nearly kicked out of the competition. We qualified with a penalty that was highly debated, and the game in Mantes was especially tough and contested. Our team, at the time, was a bunch of friends. We lived together for the team, laughed a lot, with Marcel Aubour always ready to lift the mood. In quarter-finals, we had a tough game in Monaco, we lost 2-0 but managed to come back on the return leg, before winning. Then it was Marseille, certainly the biggest memory when you think that Marseille were the reigning France champions at the time. To beat them on a two-legged tie was a real performance, especially after losing 5-0 to them in the league three days earlier. Jean Prouff had purposely set up a very unusual team to confuse the Olympians, launching players at positions they had never played on before. After that, Marseille won the first Cup leg 1-0 but really struggled to beat us. The return leg, in Rennes, was incredible. There were people on the trees, on the electric pylons, on the stadium’s roof, it was simply amazing. It was an epic game, we were trailing after less than 30 minutes, but we kept our composure, we knew we could do it. Jean Prouff was a real visionary, he told us before the game, that we would qualify after conceding the first goal, but would make our way through the penalty shootouts. We equalised logically, and our victory was deserved over both games. Then the final, against Lyon, we weren’t particularly tipped to win it and won it on a litigious penalty, but everybody said our victory was widely deserved, since we had the better chances. We had already scored two goals before, but they were inexplicably disallowed. I remember the crowd on the Station’s square. People were climbing on the buildings to acclaim us. Then we paraded up the Avenue Janvier towards the Town Hall. There was something like 80,000 people in the streets. […] It remains a very strong personal memory. »