Bayern München 1-0 Saint-Étienne Roth 57’ | 12 May 1976, Hampden Park, Glasgow
Final Facts
“We loved those players so much; there really was a green heart.” Supporter Denis Lièvre is recalling the Saint-Étienne team that came so close to lifting the European Cup at Glasgow’s Hampden Park nearly 50 years ago. The French side were underdogs in the 1976 final against the mighty Bayern München, champions the previous two seasons, and twice struck the crossbar in the first half, before succumbing to a Franz Roth free-kick 12 minutes after the break. Saint-Étienne contest that had the crossbar been round and not square, both Dominique Bathenay’s powerful 34th-minute drive and Jacques Santini’s header five minutes later would have finished in the net – and the French outfit would have been European champions."
Parts of that infamous goal frame now sit in Saint-Étienne’s club museum, the famous Poteaux Carrés (square posts) a symbol of what might have been. The final should have crowned a joyous decade for Les Verts. Robert Herbin’s exciting side were the darlings of France and soon to clinch their third straight domestic title. The classic club anthem, Allez Les Verts, released ahead of the final, sat top of the charts and the whole nation rallied behind the first French team to reach the final since Stade de Reims in 1959.
For the tens of thousands of Saint-Étienne fans in Glasgow on 12 May 1976, the result did not diminish what Herbin’s players had achieved, and thousands more celebrated their return on the Champs-Élysées the following day. Three of those fans – Denis Lièvre (now 84), Georges Elbeck (87) and Alex Mahinc (84) – rode the green wave that broke over France in the mid-1970s. Here they tell their story, culminating in a day in Glasgow that they will never forget.
Georges Elbeck: That was a magnificent French team. People came from a long way away, as far as the Pyrenees, to see Saint-Étienne, even just for ordinary league games. There were some great players, international footballers, and the way they played was magnificent. The attacking style meant they dominated games and it was something that hadn’t really been seen before in France. The players either came through at the club together or they were recruited to fit the team. They all knew their jobs and tried to play attacking football. The coach, Robert Herbin, wanted them to play positively. He always wanted his teams to have the ball and attack with it, get in behind the opposition and show what they could do from there.
Denis Lièvre: We loved those players so much, Dominique Rocheteau above all. He was the darling of the young girls especially; they called him the Angel. It was a team of friends who had grown up together, who played for each other and the club. There really was a green jersey and a green heart.
Alex Mahinc: My favourite player was the Argentinian defender Osvaldo Piazza – he was such a nice guy, always happy to stop and talk. The Yugoslavian goalkeeper Ivan Ćurković was phenomenal as well. And the French players practically made up the French team at the time: [Jean-Michel] Larqué, Santini, [Hervé] Revelli, [Christian] Lopez... They had an understanding and didn’t need to talk. They could play with their eyes closed. Extraordinary players.
Denis Lièvre: It’s not like modern players. We had a link with these players who had come through the ranks. The senior players who stayed at the club were there for almost ten years so we had a really united team, really a team of friends who were very supportive of each other. That’s why we were able to defeat the best teams of that era. After games, we always saw the players and we started to meet in a restaurant called Le Petit Coq. European nights were a party, like a sculpture of joy. There was so much love between the team and the fans.
Success on the pitch also ushered in a new era off it. The team’s attacking, flamboyant style won admirers far beyond the small mining town in the Rhône Valley, and a small group of supporters took on the task of meeting an insatiable demand. Alex Mahinc, for example, was a postman and volunteered to film the games, copies of which were available to buy. Denis Lièvre, an undertaker, rallied fans to the matches, touring the city and bellowing into his megaphone before games. And it was the supporters’ club that developed the first range of Saint-Étienne merchandising. Football was entering a new era and the future looked green.
Alex Mahinc: We were part of a supporters’ group called the Associated Members. We started it in 1970 following an article in the paper by club president Roger Rocher, asking if fans would like to reform the old supporters’ club. We each had a job: one person looked after drinks, one looked after parking, others the sound system in the stadium – and I looked after the camera. and I’m still doing it, ever since 1972. I still film the games 50 years on.
Denis Lièvre: I’ve been a fan since I was seven. I used to go to the big matches with my cousin, who took me to games on his bike. I was an undertaker, a special job, so I had to be careful, but I had a big heart. I had a really loud voice and I used to go round the city in my car with a megaphone telling people to come to the games: “Saint-Étienne are playing in the league on Sunday, come and watch them!” We toured every neighbourhood announcing the game, and that helped the supporters’ club grow.
Alex Mahinc: At one meeting we were asked if someone could answer all the fan mail the club was receiving. I said I could help but I had no idea what was in store. I went into an office and there was a mountain of mail that hadn’t been replied to – fans who were writing to ask for a photo or autograph. Some were asking for jerseys, that sort of thing. We asked Mr Rocher if we could sell player jerseys but he said that was out of the question. Instead, we sold T-shirts – one white, one green – that simply said Allez Les Verts. And that’s how club merchandising began at Saint-Étienne.
Denis Lièvre: We had a lot of work, particularly between 1973 and 1976. We used to get thousands of letters from all over; the level of interest was unbelievable. We started selling things for the club, like stickers, scarves, photos. We used to have a stand in the lobby of Lyon airport to sell our pieces. You couldn’t imagine that now.
Alex Mahinc: In 1976, many of those people dressed in green were wearing the merchandise we’d sold either by correspondence or in the supporters’ club shop on the day of the game. For the quarter-final against Kyiv, we had to call the police to come and help us get people out of the shop because there were too many.
Alex Mahinc: One day during a meeting, Pierre Garonnaire – who was in charge of recruitment at the club – asked if anyone knew how to film. He said, “Mr Rocher has bought this equipment. I know nothing about it. Here are the instructions. You have to film the game on Sunday.” I said I’d done a lot of home movies, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to film a match. It was an old press box with wooden floorboards and every time a journalist walked past, the camera moved. But, in the end, everything went well. I filmed all the games I could, even abroad, even though I was just a volunteer – I had my job to do as well. I worked for the Post Office, nothing to do with camerawork!
Alex Mahinc: We used to put up sheets in a room to block out the light and project the matches onto them for the coach Robert Herbin, who would spend hours watching them back. And I can tell you, if he saw a player – even if it was the best in the team – with his hands on his hips, or not making an effort, he was disgusted and flew into a rage. We were the first club in France to film the games.
Saint-Étienne’s run to the final had already included one stop in Glasgow, where they had beaten Rangers 2-1 to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in the second round. Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s brilliant Dynamo Kyiv side were up next in the quarter-finals but, after a 2-0 loss in Ukraine, Saint-Étienne battled back at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to win 3-0, Rocheteau scoring the winner in the second half of extra time. In the last four against PSV Eindhoven, Larqué scored the only goal over two legs to earn a place in the final. Defending champions Bayern, who had beaten Les Verts in the semi-finals the previous season, now stood between Saint-Étienne and the trophy.
Georges Elbeck: There was a great atmosphere for European nights because the whole town was involved. It was like a big party. Everyone would watch the games. At that time, the town was almost menacing: the mines had been shut down and the factories were closing, everything was closing. There was a lot of unemployment and so football was even more important; it was the only bright spot for a lot of people. I have some great memories from those matches on the way to the final. Dynamo Kyiv were the strongest team in Europe at that time, with Oleh Blokhin, and we managed to beat them after losing in Ukraine. The second leg at home went to extra time, but we got through and it was crazy, a great achievement. Getting to the final was a big dream. Reims had had a great side, but France had been waiting for another team to get to the final since the Raymond Kopa era.
Alex Mahinc: The atmosphere in the stadium for those European nights was extraordinary. There were so many people there – it reminded me of the games in Liverpool.
Georges Elbeck: I’d been going to the games since I was five, and I had to go to that final. Everyone was there; Glasgow was turned green! It’s obviously Celtic’s home city and there were flags hanging from all the windows. It was incredible. Unfortunately we lost, but afterwards we partied until six in the morning. It was a huge event.
Denis Lièvre: The big memory I have of Glasgow is of all the streets, all the windows, all being green and white. And there were many more Saint-Étienne supporters than Bayern. The whole city was green and white. Just before kick-off, fans released a rooster onto the pitch because it was the emblem of France. We had a lot of fun. It took a while to catch it. We touched the hearts of the locals, who would have paid to shake our hands. It was amazing, amazing. We’d never seen an atmosphere like it. We were going there to win, but Bayern had a hell of a team. They had some incredible players, and we knew all of them. We’d seen them on TV and we knew all their names. Gerd Müller was their leader – he just wanted to score goals.
Georges Elbeck: Hampden was an open stadium. All the stands were open. We were behind the goal and all the locals were with us, chanting. It was extraordinary. I think there were only two or three thousand Bayern fans there, compared to 20,000 from France. After the match, people were so late that the planes had to wait for them before going back to France. People didn’t want to leave; they stayed there. I was having a drink and I was hours late for my plane.
Denis Lièvre: Losing was a big disappointment, but there was still the joy of having got to that final. The players were truly heroes. When they got back to Paris, they went down the Champs-Élysées in open-topped cars as if they’d won the cup. It’s so unfair they hadn’t. Nevertheless, it was a fabulous occasion.
Georges Elbeck: There was a reception on the Champs-Élysées; the streets were full and the team were met by the French president. There was also a big street party in the main square when they came back to Saint-Étienne. The team were there and came out on the balcony. It was the first time people had been able to watch the game on television, so everyone knew them. Everyone in France supported the team in that final.
Denis Lièvre: The square posts… how can you explain that? The club bought them later – we paid €20,000 for them and had them restored. They’ve become part of our club legend. They’re in a room in our museum now.
“We loved those players so much; there really was a green heart.” Supporter Denis Lièvre is recalling the Saint-Étienne team that came so close to lifting the European Cup at Glasgow’s Hampden Park nearly 50 years ago. The French side were underdogs in the 1976 final against the mighty Bayern München, champions the previous two seasons, and twice struck the crossbar in the first half, before succumbing to a Franz Roth free-kick 12 minutes after the break. Saint-Étienne contest that had the crossbar been round and not square, both Dominique Bathenay’s powerful 34th-minute drive and Jacques Santini’s header five minutes later would have finished in the net – and the French outfit would have been European champions."
Parts of that infamous goal frame now sit in Saint-Étienne’s club museum, the famous Poteaux Carrés (square posts) a symbol of what might have been. The final should have crowned a joyous decade for Les Verts. Robert Herbin’s exciting side were the darlings of France and soon to clinch their third straight domestic title. The classic club anthem, Allez Les Verts, released ahead of the final, sat top of the charts and the whole nation rallied behind the first French team to reach the final since Stade de Reims in 1959.
For the tens of thousands of Saint-Étienne fans in Glasgow on 12 May 1976, the result did not diminish what Herbin’s players had achieved, and thousands more celebrated their return on the Champs-Élysées the following day. Three of those fans – Denis Lièvre (now 84), Georges Elbeck (87) and Alex Mahinc (84) – rode the green wave that broke over France in the mid-1970s. Here they tell their story, culminating in a day in Glasgow that they will never forget.
Georges Elbeck: That was a magnificent French team. People came from a long way away, as far as the Pyrenees, to see Saint-Étienne, even just for ordinary league games. There were some great players, international footballers, and the way they played was magnificent. The attacking style meant they dominated games and it was something that hadn’t really been seen before in France. The players either came through at the club together or they were recruited to fit the team. They all knew their jobs and tried to play attacking football. The coach, Robert Herbin, wanted them to play positively. He always wanted his teams to have the ball and attack with it, get in behind the opposition and show what they could do from there.
Denis Lièvre: We loved those players so much, Dominique Rocheteau above all. He was the darling of the young girls especially; they called him the Angel. It was a team of friends who had grown up together, who played for each other and the club. There really was a green jersey and a green heart.
Alex Mahinc: My favourite player was the Argentinian defender Osvaldo Piazza – he was such a nice guy, always happy to stop and talk. The Yugoslavian goalkeeper Ivan Ćurković was phenomenal as well. And the French players practically made up the French team at the time: [Jean-Michel] Larqué, Santini, [Hervé] Revelli, [Christian] Lopez... They had an understanding and didn’t need to talk. They could play with their eyes closed. Extraordinary players.
Denis Lièvre: It’s not like modern players. We had a link with these players who had come through the ranks. The senior players who stayed at the club were there for almost ten years so we had a really united team, really a team of friends who were very supportive of each other. That’s why we were able to defeat the best teams of that era. After games, we always saw the players and we started to meet in a restaurant called Le Petit Coq. European nights were a party, like a sculpture of joy. There was so much love between the team and the fans.
Success on the pitch also ushered in a new era off it. The team’s attacking, flamboyant style won admirers far beyond the small mining town in the Rhône Valley, and a small group of supporters took on the task of meeting an insatiable demand. Alex Mahinc, for example, was a postman and volunteered to film the games, copies of which were available to buy. Denis Lièvre, an undertaker, rallied fans to the matches, touring the city and bellowing into his megaphone before games. And it was the supporters’ club that developed the first range of Saint-Étienne merchandising. Football was entering a new era and the future looked green.
Alex Mahinc: We were part of a supporters’ group called the Associated Members. We started it in 1970 following an article in the paper by club president Roger Rocher, asking if fans would like to reform the old supporters’ club. We each had a job: one person looked after drinks, one looked after parking, others the sound system in the stadium – and I looked after the camera. and I’m still doing it, ever since 1972. I still film the games 50 years on.
Denis Lièvre: I’ve been a fan since I was seven. I used to go to the big matches with my cousin, who took me to games on his bike. I was an undertaker, a special job, so I had to be careful, but I had a big heart. I had a really loud voice and I used to go round the city in my car with a megaphone telling people to come to the games: “Saint-Étienne are playing in the league on Sunday, come and watch them!” We toured every neighbourhood announcing the game, and that helped the supporters’ club grow.
Alex Mahinc: At one meeting we were asked if someone could answer all the fan mail the club was receiving. I said I could help but I had no idea what was in store. I went into an office and there was a mountain of mail that hadn’t been replied to – fans who were writing to ask for a photo or autograph. Some were asking for jerseys, that sort of thing. We asked Mr Rocher if we could sell player jerseys but he said that was out of the question. Instead, we sold T-shirts – one white, one green – that simply said Allez Les Verts. And that’s how club merchandising began at Saint-Étienne.
Denis Lièvre: We had a lot of work, particularly between 1973 and 1976. We used to get thousands of letters from all over; the level of interest was unbelievable. We started selling things for the club, like stickers, scarves, photos. We used to have a stand in the lobby of Lyon airport to sell our pieces. You couldn’t imagine that now.
Alex Mahinc: In 1976, many of those people dressed in green were wearing the merchandise we’d sold either by correspondence or in the supporters’ club shop on the day of the game. For the quarter-final against Kyiv, we had to call the police to come and help us get people out of the shop because there were too many.
Alex Mahinc: One day during a meeting, Pierre Garonnaire – who was in charge of recruitment at the club – asked if anyone knew how to film. He said, “Mr Rocher has bought this equipment. I know nothing about it. Here are the instructions. You have to film the game on Sunday.” I said I’d done a lot of home movies, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to film a match. It was an old press box with wooden floorboards and every time a journalist walked past, the camera moved. But, in the end, everything went well. I filmed all the games I could, even abroad, even though I was just a volunteer – I had my job to do as well. I worked for the Post Office, nothing to do with camerawork!
Alex Mahinc: We used to put up sheets in a room to block out the light and project the matches onto them for the coach Robert Herbin, who would spend hours watching them back. And I can tell you, if he saw a player – even if it was the best in the team – with his hands on his hips, or not making an effort, he was disgusted and flew into a rage. We were the first club in France to film the games.
Saint-Étienne’s run to the final had already included one stop in Glasgow, where they had beaten Rangers 2-1 to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in the second round. Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s brilliant Dynamo Kyiv side were up next in the quarter-finals but, after a 2-0 loss in Ukraine, Saint-Étienne battled back at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to win 3-0, Rocheteau scoring the winner in the second half of extra time. In the last four against PSV Eindhoven, Larqué scored the only goal over two legs to earn a place in the final. Defending champions Bayern, who had beaten Les Verts in the semi-finals the previous season, now stood between Saint-Étienne and the trophy.
Georges Elbeck: There was a great atmosphere for European nights because the whole town was involved. It was like a big party. Everyone would watch the games. At that time, the town was almost menacing: the mines had been shut down and the factories were closing, everything was closing. There was a lot of unemployment and so football was even more important; it was the only bright spot for a lot of people. I have some great memories from those matches on the way to the final. Dynamo Kyiv were the strongest team in Europe at that time, with Oleh Blokhin, and we managed to beat them after losing in Ukraine. The second leg at home went to extra time, but we got through and it was crazy, a great achievement. Getting to the final was a big dream. Reims had had a great side, but France had been waiting for another team to get to the final since the Raymond Kopa era.
Alex Mahinc: The atmosphere in the stadium for those European nights was extraordinary. There were so many people there – it reminded me of the games in Liverpool.
Georges Elbeck: I’d been going to the games since I was five, and I had to go to that final. Everyone was there; Glasgow was turned green! It’s obviously Celtic’s home city and there were flags hanging from all the windows. It was incredible. Unfortunately we lost, but afterwards we partied until six in the morning. It was a huge event.
Denis Lièvre: The big memory I have of Glasgow is of all the streets, all the windows, all being green and white. And there were many more Saint-Étienne supporters than Bayern. The whole city was green and white. Just before kick-off, fans released a rooster onto the pitch because it was the emblem of France. We had a lot of fun. It took a while to catch it. We touched the hearts of the locals, who would have paid to shake our hands. It was amazing, amazing. We’d never seen an atmosphere like it. We were going there to win, but Bayern had a hell of a team. They had some incredible players, and we knew all of them. We’d seen them on TV and we knew all their names. Gerd Müller was their leader – he just wanted to score goals.
Georges Elbeck: Hampden was an open stadium. All the stands were open. We were behind the goal and all the locals were with us, chanting. It was extraordinary. I think there were only two or three thousand Bayern fans there, compared to 20,000 from France. After the match, people were so late that the planes had to wait for them before going back to France. People didn’t want to leave; they stayed there. I was having a drink and I was hours late for my plane.
Denis Lièvre: Losing was a big disappointment, but there was still the joy of having got to that final. The players were truly heroes. When they got back to Paris, they went down the Champs-Élysées in open-topped cars as if they’d won the cup. It’s so unfair they hadn’t. Nevertheless, it was a fabulous occasion.
Georges Elbeck: There was a reception on the Champs-Élysées; the streets were full and the team were met by the French president. There was also a big street party in the main square when they came back to Saint-Étienne. The team were there and came out on the balcony. It was the first time people had been able to watch the game on television, so everyone knew them. Everyone in France supported the team in that final.
Denis Lièvre: The square posts… how can you explain that? The club bought them later – we paid €20,000 for them and had them restored. They’ve become part of our club legend. They’re in a room in our museum now.
“We loved those players so much; there really was a green heart.” Supporter Denis Lièvre is recalling the Saint-Étienne team that came so close to lifting the European Cup at Glasgow’s Hampden Park nearly 50 years ago. The French side were underdogs in the 1976 final against the mighty Bayern München, champions the previous two seasons, and twice struck the crossbar in the first half, before succumbing to a Franz Roth free-kick 12 minutes after the break. Saint-Étienne contest that had the crossbar been round and not square, both Dominique Bathenay’s powerful 34th-minute drive and Jacques Santini’s header five minutes later would have finished in the net – and the French outfit would have been European champions."
Parts of that infamous goal frame now sit in Saint-Étienne’s club museum, the famous Poteaux Carrés (square posts) a symbol of what might have been. The final should have crowned a joyous decade for Les Verts. Robert Herbin’s exciting side were the darlings of France and soon to clinch their third straight domestic title. The classic club anthem, Allez Les Verts, released ahead of the final, sat top of the charts and the whole nation rallied behind the first French team to reach the final since Stade de Reims in 1959.
For the tens of thousands of Saint-Étienne fans in Glasgow on 12 May 1976, the result did not diminish what Herbin’s players had achieved, and thousands more celebrated their return on the Champs-Élysées the following day. Three of those fans – Denis Lièvre (now 84), Georges Elbeck (87) and Alex Mahinc (84) – rode the green wave that broke over France in the mid-1970s. Here they tell their story, culminating in a day in Glasgow that they will never forget.
Georges Elbeck: That was a magnificent French team. People came from a long way away, as far as the Pyrenees, to see Saint-Étienne, even just for ordinary league games. There were some great players, international footballers, and the way they played was magnificent. The attacking style meant they dominated games and it was something that hadn’t really been seen before in France. The players either came through at the club together or they were recruited to fit the team. They all knew their jobs and tried to play attacking football. The coach, Robert Herbin, wanted them to play positively. He always wanted his teams to have the ball and attack with it, get in behind the opposition and show what they could do from there.
Denis Lièvre: We loved those players so much, Dominique Rocheteau above all. He was the darling of the young girls especially; they called him the Angel. It was a team of friends who had grown up together, who played for each other and the club. There really was a green jersey and a green heart.
Alex Mahinc: My favourite player was the Argentinian defender Osvaldo Piazza – he was such a nice guy, always happy to stop and talk. The Yugoslavian goalkeeper Ivan Ćurković was phenomenal as well. And the French players practically made up the French team at the time: [Jean-Michel] Larqué, Santini, [Hervé] Revelli, [Christian] Lopez... They had an understanding and didn’t need to talk. They could play with their eyes closed. Extraordinary players.
Denis Lièvre: It’s not like modern players. We had a link with these players who had come through the ranks. The senior players who stayed at the club were there for almost ten years so we had a really united team, really a team of friends who were very supportive of each other. That’s why we were able to defeat the best teams of that era. After games, we always saw the players and we started to meet in a restaurant called Le Petit Coq. European nights were a party, like a sculpture of joy. There was so much love between the team and the fans.
Success on the pitch also ushered in a new era off it. The team’s attacking, flamboyant style won admirers far beyond the small mining town in the Rhône Valley, and a small group of supporters took on the task of meeting an insatiable demand. Alex Mahinc, for example, was a postman and volunteered to film the games, copies of which were available to buy. Denis Lièvre, an undertaker, rallied fans to the matches, touring the city and bellowing into his megaphone before games. And it was the supporters’ club that developed the first range of Saint-Étienne merchandising. Football was entering a new era and the future looked green.
Alex Mahinc: We were part of a supporters’ group called the Associated Members. We started it in 1970 following an article in the paper by club president Roger Rocher, asking if fans would like to reform the old supporters’ club. We each had a job: one person looked after drinks, one looked after parking, others the sound system in the stadium – and I looked after the camera. and I’m still doing it, ever since 1972. I still film the games 50 years on.
Denis Lièvre: I’ve been a fan since I was seven. I used to go to the big matches with my cousin, who took me to games on his bike. I was an undertaker, a special job, so I had to be careful, but I had a big heart. I had a really loud voice and I used to go round the city in my car with a megaphone telling people to come to the games: “Saint-Étienne are playing in the league on Sunday, come and watch them!” We toured every neighbourhood announcing the game, and that helped the supporters’ club grow.
Alex Mahinc: At one meeting we were asked if someone could answer all the fan mail the club was receiving. I said I could help but I had no idea what was in store. I went into an office and there was a mountain of mail that hadn’t been replied to – fans who were writing to ask for a photo or autograph. Some were asking for jerseys, that sort of thing. We asked Mr Rocher if we could sell player jerseys but he said that was out of the question. Instead, we sold T-shirts – one white, one green – that simply said Allez Les Verts. And that’s how club merchandising began at Saint-Étienne.
Denis Lièvre: We had a lot of work, particularly between 1973 and 1976. We used to get thousands of letters from all over; the level of interest was unbelievable. We started selling things for the club, like stickers, scarves, photos. We used to have a stand in the lobby of Lyon airport to sell our pieces. You couldn’t imagine that now.
Alex Mahinc: In 1976, many of those people dressed in green were wearing the merchandise we’d sold either by correspondence or in the supporters’ club shop on the day of the game. For the quarter-final against Kyiv, we had to call the police to come and help us get people out of the shop because there were too many.
Alex Mahinc: One day during a meeting, Pierre Garonnaire – who was in charge of recruitment at the club – asked if anyone knew how to film. He said, “Mr Rocher has bought this equipment. I know nothing about it. Here are the instructions. You have to film the game on Sunday.” I said I’d done a lot of home movies, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to film a match. It was an old press box with wooden floorboards and every time a journalist walked past, the camera moved. But, in the end, everything went well. I filmed all the games I could, even abroad, even though I was just a volunteer – I had my job to do as well. I worked for the Post Office, nothing to do with camerawork!
Alex Mahinc: We used to put up sheets in a room to block out the light and project the matches onto them for the coach Robert Herbin, who would spend hours watching them back. And I can tell you, if he saw a player – even if it was the best in the team – with his hands on his hips, or not making an effort, he was disgusted and flew into a rage. We were the first club in France to film the games.
Saint-Étienne’s run to the final had already included one stop in Glasgow, where they had beaten Rangers 2-1 to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in the second round. Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s brilliant Dynamo Kyiv side were up next in the quarter-finals but, after a 2-0 loss in Ukraine, Saint-Étienne battled back at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to win 3-0, Rocheteau scoring the winner in the second half of extra time. In the last four against PSV Eindhoven, Larqué scored the only goal over two legs to earn a place in the final. Defending champions Bayern, who had beaten Les Verts in the semi-finals the previous season, now stood between Saint-Étienne and the trophy.
Georges Elbeck: There was a great atmosphere for European nights because the whole town was involved. It was like a big party. Everyone would watch the games. At that time, the town was almost menacing: the mines had been shut down and the factories were closing, everything was closing. There was a lot of unemployment and so football was even more important; it was the only bright spot for a lot of people. I have some great memories from those matches on the way to the final. Dynamo Kyiv were the strongest team in Europe at that time, with Oleh Blokhin, and we managed to beat them after losing in Ukraine. The second leg at home went to extra time, but we got through and it was crazy, a great achievement. Getting to the final was a big dream. Reims had had a great side, but France had been waiting for another team to get to the final since the Raymond Kopa era.
Alex Mahinc: The atmosphere in the stadium for those European nights was extraordinary. There were so many people there – it reminded me of the games in Liverpool.
Georges Elbeck: I’d been going to the games since I was five, and I had to go to that final. Everyone was there; Glasgow was turned green! It’s obviously Celtic’s home city and there were flags hanging from all the windows. It was incredible. Unfortunately we lost, but afterwards we partied until six in the morning. It was a huge event.
Denis Lièvre: The big memory I have of Glasgow is of all the streets, all the windows, all being green and white. And there were many more Saint-Étienne supporters than Bayern. The whole city was green and white. Just before kick-off, fans released a rooster onto the pitch because it was the emblem of France. We had a lot of fun. It took a while to catch it. We touched the hearts of the locals, who would have paid to shake our hands. It was amazing, amazing. We’d never seen an atmosphere like it. We were going there to win, but Bayern had a hell of a team. They had some incredible players, and we knew all of them. We’d seen them on TV and we knew all their names. Gerd Müller was their leader – he just wanted to score goals.
Georges Elbeck: Hampden was an open stadium. All the stands were open. We were behind the goal and all the locals were with us, chanting. It was extraordinary. I think there were only two or three thousand Bayern fans there, compared to 20,000 from France. After the match, people were so late that the planes had to wait for them before going back to France. People didn’t want to leave; they stayed there. I was having a drink and I was hours late for my plane.
Denis Lièvre: Losing was a big disappointment, but there was still the joy of having got to that final. The players were truly heroes. When they got back to Paris, they went down the Champs-Élysées in open-topped cars as if they’d won the cup. It’s so unfair they hadn’t. Nevertheless, it was a fabulous occasion.
Georges Elbeck: There was a reception on the Champs-Élysées; the streets were full and the team were met by the French president. There was also a big street party in the main square when they came back to Saint-Étienne. The team were there and came out on the balcony. It was the first time people had been able to watch the game on television, so everyone knew them. Everyone in France supported the team in that final.
Denis Lièvre: The square posts… how can you explain that? The club bought them later – we paid €20,000 for them and had them restored. They’ve become part of our club legend. They’re in a room in our museum now.
