At the foot of the Glandon and Madeleine passes, a dry municipal pitch has become the centre of a Cup story that still feels unreal in Saint-Étienne-de-Cuines. AS Cuines-La Chambre, a village club from Savoie’s second district division, will try to extend its remarkable Coupe de France run against FC Colombier-Satolas on Sunday at 14:30.
A 40-metre moment that changed everything
- Cuines-La Chambre entered the fourth round facing AS Saint-Priest, a National 1 side standing six divisions above them.
- Midfielder Rémy Suppo came on in the 54th minute, initially tasked with helping his team protect a 0-0 scoreline.
- Suppo had noticed from the bench that Saint-Priest’s goalkeeper had regularly positioned himself well outside his area during the first half.
- With his first real opportunity, he struck from around 40 metres and sent a lob into the net, a goal that rapidly spread across social media after the match on September 27, 2026.
- Cuines-La Chambre held on through the final half-hour to eliminate Saint-Priest and reach the fifth round for the first time.
For Suppo, an elevator technician away from football, the days after the upset were overwhelming. He had lived for five years only 500 metres from Saint-Priest’s ground before returning to the region to raise his family.
“Sportingly, I will never experience anything bigger,” he said. “Only now is it beginning to come down. The following days were strange, mentally intense and emotional. I was exhausted for almost all of the next week.”
He insisted that the spectacular finish was not simply blind fortune. “I knew a long shot could change things. I did not hesitate and did not even look to see where the goalkeeper was. There was luck involved, but it was what I wanted to do.”
At full time, the scale of the achievement caught up with the players. “Your brain switches off,” Suppo said. “You cannot think any more. When the final whistle went, we did not know how to react. Then the tears come and you cannot control them.”
A village carried by its team
Coach Stephen Thomasset had told his squad after the draw that they had only a one per cent chance. His message was simply to value that one per cent.
The team made it count in front of a packed local crowd. Thomasset said the noise after Suppo’s goal was so great that he could no longer make himself heard from the touchline.
“The finest thing the players did was bring the public with them,” he said. “Some players had worked on the morning of the match, five of them are over 35, and our captain is 42. It took me a week to come back down from it all. You watch the goal a hundred times and reread messages from friends again and again.”
The coach also praised Saint-Priest’s response to the upset, describing the visitors’ players and officials as respectful before, during and after the match.
Saint-Priest had shown their pedigree in the competition only two seasons earlier, reaching the last 16 in 2023-24 before losing 2-1 to Ligue 2 club Valenciennes.
The Cup hangover and the next challenge
Cuines-La Chambre paid an immediate price for their emotional week when they returned to league football at Montmélian. They were beaten 6-3, with Suppo admitting the side had little energy left after the Cup high.
“We took a heavy beating,” he said. “We had no legs and were pushed around.”
Yet the defeat has not dimmed the excitement in a village of around 1,200 people. The club had only reached the fourth round for the first time last season, when it received the French Football Federation’s traditional set of Cup shirts.
Now it moves into the fifth round against another side from the Lyon area. Colombier-Satolas play in Régional 3, two levels above Cuines-La Chambre, whose D2 status places them at the 10th tier of the French pyramid.
The visitors will find a surface marked by the drought, with only this week’s rainfall offering some relief, and a ground expected to be full again.
Club president André Tognet, a member for 58 years who was born in the village and never left it, said the run had transformed daily life around the club.
“Something like this happens once in a lifetime,” Tognet said. “It is a family club and everybody knows everybody. There is euphoria everywhere. I can barely take a step without someone stopping me. People are amazed. After the draw, I said it was impossible and that we mainly wanted a good celebration. I was very wrong.”
Cuines-La Chambre have already delivered more than a celebration. On Sunday, with Suppo’s extraordinary strike still echoing around Maurienne, they will attempt to create another impossible night.
