three Ligue 1 clubs are falling from a height, eight amateur teams still in the running… What to remember from the 32nd finals

Dame Coupe delivered her gifts early this season. Usually placed the day after the end-of-year holidays, the 32nd finals of the Coupe de France were organized on Friday 20, Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 December for this 2024/25 edition. The change of dates has not changed the scenarios of surprise elimination of professional clubs by amateurs on sometimes rural grounds.

Among the elite clubs, PSG, winners of penalties against Lens in the North, OM, winner of Saint-Etienne (4-0), Monaco, Nantes, Reims and Rennes, clear winners of their match against teams from a lower level as well as Brest, Lille and Lyon, who all won by a goal, qualified.

Le Havre and Montpellier eliminated by fourth division clubs, Auxerre by a Ligue 2

The Coupe de France is not always an enchanted interlude, on the contrary. In bad shape in the championship, Le Havre and Montpellier, bottom two in Ligue 1, concluded their calendar year with yet another defeat. If the HAC's setback against Saint-Brieuc (N2) with a score of 1-0 is a fairly classic scenario, that of Montpellier is even more worrying. Defeated 4-0 on the pitch at Puy-en-Velay (N2), the Héraultais once again showed a worrying face and became the first Ligue 1 team to be beaten by such a margin by a fourth division club.

Auxerre, 8th in the league, is the fourth elite club to have left, beaten 1-0 by a good team from Dunkirk who confirm their excellent start to the season where they are in third place in Ligue 2 at the break .

These Ligue 1 teams who shook

TFC and OGCN came very close to being added to this list of those eliminated, winning on penalties against fifth division clubs. Opposed to Hauts Lyonnais, the winners of the 2023 edition made their task difficult by receiving a red card in the middle of the first period, before their opponents also saw red to end the match ten against ten. We had to wait for the penalty shootout to see the nets shake and shift the fate of the confrontation to the Hauts-Garonnais side.

Traveling to Furiani to face Corte, Nice was also reduced to ten. In a nightmare scenario, the Aiglons first missed a penalty before suffering the opener, then coming up against Corsican resistance, symbolized by their goalkeeper and captain Jacques Luciani, author of 16 saves. But OGCN finally equalized and finished the job on penalties.

Angers, 15th in L1, came out on top thanks to a goal from Estéban Lepaul against a valiant team from Bobigny (N2).

Sochaux, Cannes, Bourgoin, Thaon… The N2 and N3 teams bring down L2s

While awaiting the fate reserved for the duel between Tours and Lorient, only 6 Ligue 2 clubs have validated their qualification for the round of 16. This is only two more than the residents of National, National 2 and National, who will all have four representatives in the next round. Cannes (N2) and Bourgoin-Jallieu (N3) dominated the debates and showed mastery to beat Grenoble (3-2) and Martigues (4-1), where Thaon (N3) pulled away to overthrow Amiens ( 2-1). Sochaux (N), for its part, waited for the penalty shootout to make the difference against Clermont (0-0, 5-3). A contingent which could have been even more reduced if Laval had not escaped on penalties on the pitch in poor condition of Mérignac (R1) after a scoreless match.

In the event of an exploit, the Girondins could have become the little thumbs of the competition where no regional level club has managed to continue the adventure. Drafted, Marmandes (R2) suffered the severe law of Le Mans (N) without mercy for the smallest club still in the running (7-0), while the overseas clubs of Saint-Joseph (R1 La Martinique) and Saint-Denis (R1 La Réunion) did not achieve the feat against Bastia (L2, 5-0) and Dives-Cabourg (N3, 2-0).

The four N3 clubs (Espaly, Bourgoin-Jallieu, Dives-Cabourg and Thaon) therefore share the honorary title of little thumb of the competition, pending a decision concerning the canceled match between Tours (R1) and Lorient (L2) .

Tours-Lorient canceled, the threat of elimination on the green carpet

There was no party in Indre-et-Loir. Tours, which is now playing in R1 after financial setbacks, was unable to host Lorient on Saturday. The match was canceled by the FFF a few hours before kick-off: “The prefecture of Indre et Loire and the Town Hall of Tours noted that FC Tours was not able to put in place a system to guarantee the holding of the match in terms of welcoming the public.justified the Federation in a press release.

“The Organizing Commission of the Coupe de France will examine the follow-up to be given”concludes the FFF press release, thus paving the way for an outright elimination of Ciel et Noir for failing to fulfill its hosting obligations.