Paris (AFP)

The Champs-Elysées invaded for the passage of a procession of Renault 5: this May 13, 1976, we do not celebrate a coronation world but a defeat. We are not celebrating the Blues but the Greens, Larqué, Rocheteau and their great organizer Herbin, hero in the making of the founding myth of French football.

The pesky "square posts" of Glasgow deprived the Stéphanois, beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich in the final of the European Cup of champion clubs, from being "forever first" but the green oasis announces the end of desert for soccer in France.

"Evoking Robert Herbin is evoking the legend of the Greens, one of the most beautiful chapters in the history of French football," professes Blues coach Didier Deschamps.

- such a long wait -

If Saint-Etienne, crowned six times D1 champion over the last ten seasons in 1976, switches to another dimension in the spring, it is because football in France comes out of a long winter: 17 years that a French club did not make it to the European Cup final. Since 1959 and the great Stade de Reims de Fontaine, Piantoni and Vincent, hero of the Blues at the 1958 World Cup, defeated by Real Madrid from their former teammate Kopa.

During this long wait, the French team failed to qualify for the 1970 and 1974 World Cups and the 1972 and 1976 Euro ...

After two decades of accumulated frustrations, football lovers are just waiting to vibrate. It will be done on March 17, 1976 with a legendary return match against Dynamo Kiev.

After easily dismissing KB Copenhagen in the first round, Saint-Etienne dominated in the round of 16 the Glasgow Rangers, recently crowned in the Cup Cup (1972), and therefore inherited from Kiev in the quarter.

The Ukrainian team, coached by the illustrious Lobanovski, is champion of the USSR and holder of the C2 title. A coronation which allowed its star Oleg Blokhine to be crowned Ballon d'Or.

Missing the first leg in the East, lost 2-0, ASSE must overthrow one of the biggest teams in Europe. And she will do it under the eyes of almost all French people.

- TV era -

This is the big difference with the 1958 World Cup. Since 1974, almost 80% of French households have had a television, according to INSEE, when they were only 6% in 1957.

The era of mass television will make the epic of 1976, the first great collective emotion of French football. On the three existing TV channels at the time, two broadcast the return match: TF1 and Antenne 2.

After a goal from Hervé Revelli on the counter, Stéphane's captain Jean-Michel Larqué offered his team an extension on a free kick. A strong strike of the law reproduced in all the schoolyards of France that year.

Then, the Green Angel Dominique Rocheteau releases the Cauldron at the 112th minute. Back in the semi-finals, where Bayern - already eliminated it in 1975, Saint-Etienne won this time 1-0 against the Dutch from PSV Eindhoven in Forez thanks to a new kick de Larqué and resisted the return to offer his first European final.

A green wave overwhelms the country which takes a passion for this working-class city club sporting ManuFrance in its D1 jersey. The tray of Yves Mourousi's journal is adorned with emerald to support it. The epic even has its hymn, created by the singer Monty, with rather categorical words: "Who are the strongest? Obviously, it's the Greens."

The rest, we know it. Hampden Park's square crossbar repels a shot from Dominique Bathenay and a whim from Jacques Santini for ASSE, who lost 1-0.

Whatever the Scottish shower, Saint-Etienne, under the orders of Robert Herbin breathed momentum: "It has allowed French football to become more efficient," said his former striker Patrick Revelli to AFP.

Two years later, Bastia imitated the Greens by inviting themselves to the final of the UEFA Cup, the French team re-entered the World Cup. As if this spring 1976 heralded the great summers of 1982, 1984 and 1986 of the Blues, made of semi-finals of World Cup and European coronation.

© 2020 AFP