Great goal, the podcast of Sports.frreturns in its last episode to the famous “square posts of Glasgow”. AS Saint-Etienne, supported by a young genius coach (Robert Herbin) and numerous players from the training center, set France alight in the 1970s with two European epics in 1975 and 1976, until the final of the Champion Clubs' Cup (the former name of the Champions League), for an unfortunate defeat against the great Bayern of Franz Beckenbauer (1-0), on May 12, 1976 at Hampden Park.
Dominique Bathenay and Jacques Santini, the two defensive midfielders of the Greens, hit, not the posts, but the crossbar of Sepp Maier during the first period… The first city erased the “Kaizer” full axis to send a superb strike from left on the crossbar, in the 34th minute. The ball bounced on the ground and Hervé Revelli missed his header. Five minutes later, on a headed cross from Christian Sarramagna, Santini's powerful header smashed the Munich goal bar! 17 years before Basile Boli's headbutt for the coronation of OM in 93 and the only C1 in the history of French football…
Santini coach of the ASS then the OL
To the great dismay of the 30,000 supporters who came from France and the Scottish spectators to the cause of ASSE, Bayern scored the only goal of the match in the 57th minute of the game. On a full-axis free kick, Franz Beckenbauer shifted Franz Roth for a terrible strike that beat Ivan Curkovic, the Yugoslav goalkeeper who had been exceptional in the semi-finals against PSV. Dominique Rocheteau, great revelation of the Saint-Etienne season, scorer of the qualifying goal in overtime against Dynamo kyiv in the quarter-final second leg, was too short to start after a muscle injury. The Green Angel entered for the last quarter of an hour, in vain.
Jacques Santini, who started in the first team in 1969, played for AS Saint-Etienne until 1981, for a record of 324 matches played and 50 goals scored. He thus won the French championship four times (1974, 1975 and 1976 with Jean-Michel Larqué as playmaker, and 1981 thanks to the talent of Michel Platini). Then coach, he managed Sainté from 92 to 94 but above all offered the first of the seven French championship titles for OL in 2002. In the process, he was coach of the French team, for a Coupe des Confederations on his record but a failed Euro 2004. Before a short catastrophic spell at Tottenham.
