You may have noticed that two teams you'd (probably) never heard of faced each other in the quarter finals of the Coupe de France through the week. Versailles from the regionalised fourth tier National 2 faced fellow fourth tier side Bergerac away from home and defeated them 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
For the big occasion the home side used a larger venue elsewhere in the region much like Versailles now plan to do for their semi final tie. In shades of Calais in 2000, Versailles now face Ligue Un side OGC Nice and are reportedly requesting permission to play the match at the Parc des Princes, home of Paris Saint-Germain.
I myself firmly believe that the Coupe de France is the greatest domestic knock-out cup competition in the world and wrote as much on this very blog a few years back. (although the likes of the FA Cup and the DFB-Pokal are, for differing reasons, not far behind) If you want to know what makes the Coupe de France so special you can read my piece entitled Vive La Coupe de France - The Story of knockout football across the channel (and beyond) which got a very positive reception at the time. If you've already read it you might enjoy even more a second time.
I hope you appreciate it.
