At the final whistle of Tuesday's match, the 10,000-strong Pierre de Coubertin stadium shook to its foundations. "It's absurd," the winners' coach Damien Ott said as the crowd cheered him and the players frenetically.
Cannes are unbeaten since October 19th, they top the league and have Julien Dominguez in attack. The Frenchman sealed their progress with a 3-1 goal in the 69th minute and scored his 10th goal in his sixth cup match. He averages a goal every 48 minutes and is the competition's top scorer.
Chafik Abbas and Cédric Concalves had already set the underdogs on their way to triumph in the first half. Goncalves' goal at 2-1 was an exhibition. A few steps behind the halfway line he pushed the ball for a shot and with a long arc from the ground he outsmarted the despairing goalkeeper.
Cannes had already knocked out two other second-tier teams in prior rounds, Grenoble and Lorient, and Ott doesn't want to stop there.
"We're breaking conventions and loving it," he said with a smile.
For the semi-finals (April 1st or 2nd), which are yet to be drawn, however, he certainly doesn't want Paris Saint-Germain. The French giants play their quarter-final at Stade Briochin, also a team from the fourth division, on Wednesday night.
Cannes has been at the forefront of the French fans' minds for the first time in years. The club, which has previously plied its trade in the top division (last time in 1998) and where Zinédine Zidane and Patrick Vieira started their professional careers, had to close its famous training centre and lost its professional status due to financial problems. For a year and a half, Jan Koller, who had already decided to end his successful career in the third division, also tried to help him return to the limelight, as he was living in nearby Monaco.
Now, however, everything seems to be on track for Cannes to claw their way back. It has come under the wing of the American consortium Friedkin Group, as they head for promotion to the third division. And as far as they can go in the cup, which they won nearly a hundred years ago in 1932.
"It's like a casino. We put everything on the table, we bet a lot to win a lot. And at the moment we are succeeding," Ott said.