FC SOCHAUX-MONTBELIARD (Stade Auguste Bonal)

COUPE DE LA LIGUE, FC SOCHAUX-MONTBELIARD 1-1 FC STADE BRESTOIS*
ATTENDANCE: 5,887                                                          *Won 4-3 on penalties

The final leg of my journey took me across Switzerland to just over the border into France. I had spent the Monday night in Zurich where, although there was no football game involved, I took a tram up to FIFA headquarters to have a little nose around!

I was flying home from Basel on Wednesday so when the French league cup threw up a fixture 8 miles over the border, with FC Sochaux-Montbeliard playing at home, then it was an absolute no brainer and allowed me to complete four games in four countries in four days.

Sochaux is famous as the home of the Peugeot, with the family starting manufacturing in the town in 1810 with the production of bicycles. The company diversified into coffee, pepper and salt grinders in the mid-19th century before the manufacture of cars began in 1889. Peugeot's lion badge is derived from the town's coat-of-arms. The Peugeot museum is located in the town but time constraints meant I had no time to visit.

FC Sochaux-Montbeliard (FCSM) were founded in 1928, so are celebrating their 90th anniversary this year. The club was founded by Jean-Pierre Peugeot to create a football club for the leisure time of the company's workers.

The Stade Auguste Bonal has been home for (almost) the entire history of FCSM. After just three years of existence, FCSM were attracting large huge crowds to their matches so the directors of Peugeot decided to create a stadium specifically for the football club. This was constructed next to the forges section of the Peugeot car factory and on 11th November 1931, in the now named Stade de la Forge, the inaugural game took place with FCSM beating Stade Français in the Coupe de Peugeot.

 The capacity of the stadium was increased to 10,000 by the mid 1930's with the construction of new stands and the ground remained largely the same until the late 1990's when all four sides were completely rebuilt to create a modern 20,000 capacity stadium. The ground was renamed the Stade Auguste Bonal as a tribute to FCSM/Peugeot director Auguste Bonal who was deported to a concentration camp in Germany, where he died in April 1945.

FCSM's glory days were in their early years in the 1930's when they clinched the French League title twice in 1935 and 1938 and the French Cup in 1937. Their only recent honours have been a League Cup victory in 2004 and another French Cup win in 2007. FCSM did have a run to the semi-final of the UEFA Cup in 1981, where they lost to AZ Alkmaar.

The club are currently in Ligue 2 after relegation in 2014 but this evening was all about the League Cup. FCSM were hosting Stade Brestois, who embarked on a 2000km return journey from Brest for this cup tie (and would be making the same trip again on Friday for a league game).

Clearly there is the same level of appetite for the league cup in France as there is in England, so tickets were reduced to ‎€5 in order to tempt the punters in. It seemed to work as the crowd was just under 6,000 which is around the average for FCSM. There is also the fact that just 6 Brest fans (pictured above, left) were sat in the away end, so hats off to them for making the previously mentioned 2000km round trip.

Those hardy supporters From Brittany were rewarded with a victory for Stade Brestois, but it did need a penalty shoot out in order to secure their place in the next round.

In a game of few clear cut chances, Brest took the lead when Mathias Autret (25) side-footed home a cross from Valentin Henry. The home supporters were not happy as the boos and whistles rang out at half time.

The game was petering out to an away win but then a cross-shot from Ermedin Demirović (75) was turned into his own goal by Brendan Chardonnet who, to be fair to him, couldn't really do anything about it.

There is no extra time in the league cup in France and at 90 minutes the tie went straight to penalties. The shoot out swung one way and the other, courtesy of some poor spot kicks, but eventually it was left to Ibrahima Diallo to slot home the winner for Stade Brest (pictured below).

AS NANCY-LORRAINE (Stade Marcel Picot)

LIGUE 1, AS NANCY 3-1 ST ETIENNE, ATTENDANCE: 17,054

For the second game of the day our merry band of groundhoppers crossed the border into France for a Ligue 1 clash as AS Nancy-Lorraine were hosting St Etienne at the Stade Marcel Picot.

We were very lucky to make the kick off though as our train from Trier plodded along the track to Luxembourg City meaning we had approximately 90 seconds to leg it across the platform to reach our connecting train to Nancy. It was a pretty close thing!

The home ground of Nancy is in Tomblaine on the edge of the city and is easily reached via tram line number 1. The ground is a 5 minute walk from the stop. There was plenty of time for a Merguez and a pint of Amstel en-route to the stadium.

The Stade Marcel Picot was inaugurated in 1926 and was originally known as Stade du Parc des Sports du Pont d’Essey until 1968 when it was renamed in honour of Marcel Picot, who was the former president of FC Nancy. The ground was completely rebuilt between 1999 and 2003 to make the ground all seated with a capacity of just under 21,000. An artificial pitch was installed in 2010.

The ground was earmarked as one of the grounds for Euro 2016 but the funding to extend the capacity to 30,000 could not be found so the application was withdrawn.

Photos courtesy of John Higgins

The current AS Nancy club were formed in 1967 from the ashes of FC Nancy, who were dissolved in 1965. After gaining promotion to the top flight within two seasons of formation, the club were back in the second tier for the 1974/75 season when the club won the title, its first major honour, with the team inspired by a young Michel Platini (who was guest of honour at the ground this evening). The club won the Coupe de France in 1978 with Platini once again playing a major role in the team. By the mid 1980's Platini had gone and the club were back in the second tier.

Nancy are what you could describe as a yo-yo side who have historically spent periods in the top flight followed by seasons in the second tier. The club have won Ligue 2 on five occasions in their history.

The club spent most of the 1990's flitting between the divisions. Irish international Tony Cascarino was part of the team that won promotion in 1998, but again their time in top flight was short lived. The club returned to Ligue 1 in 2005 before dropping down again in 2013. The club were promoted as Champions last year but now face an immediate return back.

Unfortunately after last weekends defeat to Dijon, Nancy's fate was out of their hands as they needed a win, as well as being reliant on other results going their way, i.e Lorient and Bastia losing, and a two or three goal swing depending on the respective scorelines. Even then the best they could hope for was to reach the relegation play-off with the third placed team in Ligue 2. The odds were certainly not in Nancy's favour.

The evening got off to a great start when news filtered through that Bordeaux had taken an early lead at Lorient so, when Nancy made the breakthrough after 17 minutes, Alexis Busin slotting home, the Stade Marcel Picot erupted.

The noise levels went up a notch further when Modu Diagne headed home after 59 minutes as Nancy now had the 3 points and goal swing to lift them into the play-off spot. However this joy was short lived when Lorient equalised after 69 minutes

Any hope of salvation was further extinguished when St Etienne halved the deficit on 74 minutes, Arnaud Nordin scoring. The visitors had a goal disallowed for an innocuous foul in the build up to finding the net but Nancy restored their two goal advantage after 84 minutes when Faitout Maouassa raced clear to fire home.

The home crowd, knowing this game was more or less won, began chanting "Allez Bordeaux" but sadly for them there was no miracle as Lorient held on for the draw and Nancy were relegated. Disappointment for the home supporters but given the history of the club you would not bet against them bouncing straight back in 2018.

The headline - No miracle: ASNL relegated!

The St Etienne fans

The disappointed Nancy fans disappear into the night

UEFA EURO 2016 (Nice)

Wednesday 22nd June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group B
Stade de Nice
Sweden 0-1 Belgium
Attendance: 34,011

My French adventure came to it's conclusion on the Cote d'azur with a visit to the brand new home of Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice. After waking up, and opening my window, to stunning views of palm trees and the clean blue water of the Mediterranean Sea, it was a lazy afternoon, mostly drinking Belgian beer in a place called Belgian Attitude, before heading to the ground.

The ground, opened in 2013 and replacing the old Stade Municipal du Rayand, is eco-friendly, drawing more than three times its own energy requirements from more than 4,000 solar panels. The ground has its own geothermal installation for heating and rain water channelled from the roof is used to water the pitch.

To contradict this though, the best way of reaching the ground, which is 13 km outside the city centre, is by car as the train stop for the stadium is yet to be completed. Tonight's match is the penultimate game at this ground, with England v Iceland scheduled here for next Monday before it hosts Rhianna on her world tour on 15th July.

Belgium struggled to overcome Sweden, who at least managed some efforts on target in this game. The game was decided six minutes from time when Radja Nainggolan's stunning 25-yard strike secured Belgium's place in the last 16 of Euro 2016 and eliminated out Sweden. Fabrique Belgique as they say.

As well as being my last game at Euro 2016, it was also the last international game of Zlatan Ibrahimovic as he had announced that this tournament would be his Swedish swansong, no doubt I will be seeing him at Goodison Park next season after Manchester United sign (for) him!

That is my lot for 2015/16, the journey around France was a brilliant way to round off another season of groundhopping, even if the actual football was largely forgettable. Thanks to everyone involved, and indeed over the course of the past 11 months. Hopefully I will see you all soon. Enjoy your summer!

Goodbye, au revoir!

UEFA EURO 2016 (Marseille)

Tuesday 21st June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group C
Stade Velodrome
Ukraine 0-1 Poland
Attendance: 58,874

Of all the grounds I was due to visit on this tour of the Euro's, this was the ground I was looking forward to the most. The Stade Velodrome is one of the most iconic stadiums in European, possibly world, football and it did not disappoint!

The ground was originally built in 1938, complete with a cycling track that gave the stadium its name, but the Stade Velodrome has been extensively redeveloped over the years increasing the capacity to over 67,000. The stadium used to have uncovered ends behind each goal but these have been rebuilt and all sides of the ground are now fully covered, the undulating roofs are an impressive site. One of the guys I was travelling with visited the Velodrome in the 1990's and he says it looks a lot better in its current form,

There must have been at least 35,000 Polish fans inside the ground today and they made some noise, it did make me wonder what the atmosphere would be like for an Olympique Marseille game.

The game itself was effectively a dead rubber as Poland were already through to the knockout stages, whilst Ukraine had already booked their flights home after two defeats, a 2-0 loss to Northern Ireland sealing their fate.

Second half substitute Jakub Blaszczykowski, pictured left whilst warming up, curled in a left-foot shot for the winner after 54 minutes.

Ukraine, perhaps playing with a little more freedom after elimination, had plenty of possession and attempts at goal but in truth Swansea City's Lukas Fabianski in the Polish goal was hardly troubled.

My visit to Marseille was very brief, as it was basically a quick stop off to watch the game en route from Lyon to Nice. I therefore did not get a chance to head into the city where there had been plenty of incident in the lead up to the England v Russia game 10 days previous. This game today was also classed as potentially high risk by the authorities but from what I seen everything was pretty good natured.