Another nightmare evening for Girondins de Bordeaux. Thrashed 5-1 by Angoulême on Sunday in the fourth round of the Coupe de France, Bordeaux are already out of the competition. This extremely early elimination brings a historic run to an end: Bordeaux had not failed to reach the round of 64 since the 1936-1937 season.
The Girondins de Bordeaux’s dramatic decline continues to produce statistics that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. This time, it was in the Coupe de France that the Aquitaine club endured a particularly difficult evening. Facing Angoulême in the fourth round, Bordeaux suffered a crushing 5-1 defeat, bringing their cup campaign to an end almost as soon as it had begun.
Bordeaux’s historic Coupe de France streak ends
Beyond the sporting humiliation, the elimination is particularly significant from a historical perspective. According to statistics account Stats du Foot, the Girondins had not missed the round of 64 of the Coupe de France since the 1936-1937 season. It had therefore been almost 90 years since Bordeaux had suffered such an early exit from the competition. Even more remarkably, the Girondins had been the only club to feature in every Coupe de France round of 64 since the end of the Second World War.
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That remarkable consistency reflected Bordeaux’s status as one of the major institutions of French football for decades. The club won six French league titles, four Coupes de France and three Coupes de la Ligue, while also enjoying memorable European campaigns. Players such as Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana, Zinédine Zidane, Bixente Lizarazu and Pauleta all wore the Bordeaux shirt. Their most recent Ligue 1 title came in 2009 under Laurent Blanc, before they reached the Champions League quarter-finals the following season.
Less than two decades later, Bordeaux have been knocked out in the fourth round of the Coupe de France after conceding five goals against Angoulême. This defeat is only one match in the Girondins’ long rebuilding process, but the end of a run stretching back to 1936-1937 brutally illustrates how far the club has fallen. For Bordeaux, a chapter spanning almost 90 years of Coupe de France history has now closed in the most painful way possible.
