“I was angry out of anger”

For generations of French, this match remains the most beautiful drama of French football, a meeting that no other emotion could replace. Not even the 1998 and 2018 victories.

Forty years later, Patrice still remembers it with slight bitterness. “I was furious with anger, I broke a window in the library in the living room of the residence where we went on vacation in Var. At that time, many German tourists came to spend the summer in the department. I was seventeen, I was screaming on the balcony. I was very angry with these “boats.” My father quickly made me understand that I had to calm down. »

For André, the memories are murky but he does keep some anecdotes in mind. “I don’t even know where I watched the match anymore, but then I went to the boulevards to drink and forget. People were going crazy and screaming ‘They killed us Battiston!'” They killed him!”. I got involved so it’s pretty blurry. But in the end, I didn’t forget that much,” he joked.

On our Facebook pages, some have reacted to this approaching anniversary that we’d rather not remember. Roberto La Balla, has a picture of his father’s tears.

Let’s hope that winning the Tricolor World Cup for the third time this winter in Qatar will make it possible to erase this painful memory…