With greater success in the shooting of penalties that broke the tie to a goal with which the scoreboard was closed, Auxerre achieved promotion to Ligue 1 and sent Saint Etienne to Ligue 2. The dramatic outcome gave way to a scene unfortunate at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium, where the local fans took it up with the green players.
The lawn became a battlefield, with fans jumping from every section of the stands. Positioned on one of the goals, the Saint Etienne ultras dodged the security device and fired flares at the visiting players, who tried to get into the locker room tunnel before being hit by one of the projectiles.
The flares were also launched against the box area. At that moment the police jumped onto the field to arrest one of the radicals and suffocate the battle that had been generated on the green. At the moment, the number of detainees is unknown and if there are injuries from the impact of flares.
This sad chapter joins other reprehensible incidents in French football this season, such as the one that occurred in the Nice field, when an object hit the Olympique de Marseille player, Dimitri Payet, and the ultras jumped onto the pitch or onto the Cup match between Paris F.C.-Olympique de Lyon, also with an invasion of radical supporters.
Regarding the sporting aspect, the second leg ended in a one-goal tie, just like in the first leg. It was Auxerre who took the lead in the 51st minute of the match thanks to a header from Hamza Sakhi. And a quarter of an hour from the end, Mahdi Camara got the tie that remained until the end.
The Algerian Ryad Boudebouz missed the first shot of the local team in the penalty shootout. Jean Marc Furlan's Auxerre scored all. Auxerre return to Ligue 1 a decade later. Saint Etienne, one of the teams with the best record in France, ten times champion, loses the category for the first time since 2005.
