myrgoldsport: August 2016

The 1976 European Cup Final was a football match held at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on 12 May 1976, that saw Bayern Munich of West Germany defeat Saint-Étienne of France 1–0.

The match took place at Hampden Park in Glasgow, a city that already had seen Saint-Étienne defeat local team Rangers during the competition. Les Verts were playing against Bayern Munich, a team that was hoping to win a third consecutive European Cup.

The game began with Gerd Müller finding the back of the net after fine preparatorial work by Bernd Dürnberger who won the ball in his own half and went on a 50-metre solo run. But his effort was disallowed by the referee for offside by the Hungarian referee Károly Palotai; a decision that may well deemed too harsh when reviewed with the benefit of televisual slow motion. After this Saint-Étienne were more and more confident but Franz Roth was keeping an eye on Jean-Michel Larqué, the team captain. In the 37th minute, Uli Hoeneß shot but it did not worry goalkeeper Ivan Ćurković. Saint-Étienne had plenty of chances to score though, at the 34th minute Dominique Bathenay's shot hit the crossbar, with Bayern's keeper Sepp Maier beaten. Five minutes later, Jacques Santini connected with a cross from Christian Sarramagna, but shot went just wide of the goalpost. After the final, French people called Hampden Park's goalposts "les poteaux carrés" (English: the square posts).^[1] This bad luck had influence on Saint-Étienne's players, and Bayern Munich would have been satisfied that they were still on terms at the break.

After the start of the 2nd half, Bayern Munich were more confident. In the 57th minute, Franz Beckenbauer passed to Gerd Müller, who was tackled by Osvaldo Piazza and the referee gave a free-kick to the German team from twenty metres just left of the semicircle. Franz Beckenbauer tipped the ball to Roth on his right who scored half high into the left side of the goal. After this, les Verts tried everything. Robert Herbin chose to substitute Christian Sarramagna for Dominique Rocheteau but to no avail.

At the end of the match, Saint-Étienne's players were crying, because they felt that they had been unlucky, but their supporters (at least 25,000 in Glasgow, plus 20,000 supportive and sympathetic Scots) were congratulating them, and their return in France was heroic, even though they were defeated.