Cauldron Lives Up To The Hype

When something is hyped up, the product is often underwhelming, but that was definitely not the case with Saint-Etienne’s famous atmosphere at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.

Known as The Cauldron, the 42,000-seat venue was overflowing with passion as Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United clinched an excellent 1-0 win from this Europa League Round of 32 second leg, earning great credit for handling such a fiery environment with admirable composure.

Ashley Young spoke to ManUtd.com after the final whistle and admitted the atmosphere actually benefited United, yet the stand-in right-back also joked a plan to silence the crowd was pointless. "The noise may have helped us to be honest," he told me. "For them, they were 4-0 down and their fans were still singing until the end. For us, we said we wanted to keep the crowd quiet and that obviously wasn’t the case!"

My experience of Les Verts’ home ground began shortly after noon on matchday, when our media team left the hotel on the outskirts of Saint-Etienne and headed towards the stadium in our trusty mini-bus, which was weighed down by MUTV’s haul of equipment. A problem arose when security stopped us about a mile from the venue, however, forcing five of us to lug the cameras, tripods and cases up a dual carriageway that was already littered with spirited Les Verts supporters.

That wasn’t a big deal, in all honesty, before you pan me for being soft, yet you may have a degree of sympathy due to the football banter/abuse that came our way as a result of our oversized MUTV jackets that only Arsene Wenger would admire. Brashly and boldly, one local declared to our faces that Manchester is a city full of poo! He obviously used another word, but you get the picture.

Tribalism is what makes football great, though, and staff at the stadium were perfectly helpful upon our arrival. It quickly became clear the club caters to its fans and, on this occasion, almost every seat inside the four stands was attributed a commemorative flag to wave during the game. The fact that tens of thousands did so at the start of the warm-up only displayed the excitement in the crowd.

"The atmosphere is always high in quality here," said Aurelian Sagnier, writer with the French-language version of ManUtd.com. "The stadium is always filled with passionate supporters and that was even the case when the club dropped down into the second division. They are probably the most respected fans in all of France. Of course, the visit of United only added to the excitement."

The scenes preceding kick-off resembled the greatest theatre production you’ve never seen, as a giant surfer flag of a Grim Reaper, somehow illuminated by flashing lights from beneath, was unfurled at one end as surrounding individual flags fought for attention. At the other end, the ‘Green Angels’ ultras created a giant mosaic that spelt out ‘1992’ in a reference to the year their group was established. The two main stands were decorated in the colours of bright green and white, and smoke also billowed down onto the pitch. Not since the golden era of Studio 54 had so many flares been seen in such a small space!

The sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic kicking off the first half was almost overlooked, with so many distractions in the stands, yet United did well to acclimatise to a hostile atmosphere by playing a slick passing game, as the club’s hardy travelling fans desperately tried to make themselves heard in the corner and upper tier of the stadium. Theirs was a thankless task to begin with, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s early goal duly inspired audible chants in tribute to “our midfield Armenian”.

That goal effectively knocked Saint-Etienne out of the Europa League, because it left them needing at least a 5-1 win to progress, yet their supporters continued to sing, jump, point, clap and generally make a racket from all four stands - aided by conductors with megaphones facing the crowds. It was a genuine pleasure for a football fan to be immersed in, and the fact that United won made the experience all the richer.

Neil Fell, a United fan sat behind the press box in the upper tier, can have the final word on this unique away day. “You have to give credit to their fans because they didn’t stop singing, even after our early goal,”
he said. “They were great at Old Trafford and they were great again here. You get things like this at places like Bayern, but it is very rare. You have to recognise that, and also our lads who were sat in the top corner, as they were making themselves heard too. It was just a great experience.”

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be considered as representative of Manchester United Football Club.

Credit: Manutd.com