This game featured two sharply contrasting styles and became another point in the debate in France at the time between the advocates of zonal marking and man marking. Champions FC Nantes, led by manager José Arribas, practiced the famous "jeu à la nantaise" with a strong emphasis on short passes, technical virtuosity and zonal defense. Strasbourg's strengths, on the contrary, lay more in the physical abilities developed under Paul Frantz's guidance and their counter-attack, relying on the speed of young wingers Gilbert Gress and Gérard Hausser. In addition, the Alsatian team used catenaccio defensive tactics with Denis Devaux as sweeper.
Strasbourg managed to stifle Nantes' offensive power, a task made easier when the Argentinean Ramón Muller was forced to leave the game after 30 minutes due to injury (substitutions were not authorized at that time). Early in the second half, Pierre Sbaiz was able to score from 20 meters after a José Farías free-kick. Strasbourg held on to win their second Coupe de France, which was also the second for captain René Hauss, who accomplished the remarkable feat of winning two cups at the same club with a 15-year interval.
TV reporter Thierry Roland commented that "the Cup [was] leaving France", an assertion that was deemed offensive by many in Alsace.[1] Up to the 1990s, Roland was still booed in Strasbourg for this comment.
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