French Cup team loses 12-0 amid 8,000-mile trip

Martinique side Golden Lion suffered a humbling 12-0 defeat by Lille in the French Cup on Saturday midway through an 8,000-mile round trip to play the match.

Golden Lion, the champions of Martinique and one of several overseas teams from the French territories to enter the Cup, were drawn against Ligue 1 Lille in the round of 64 and their journey began on Wednesday with a direct flight to Paris.

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Three days later, they were no match for Lille, however, as the top-division side recorded their biggest-ever victory.

Canada striker Jonathan David and Kosovo winger Edon Zhegrova bagged hat-tricks for the hosts ahead of Lion’s long journey home.

There were braces, too, for Turkey midfielder Yusuf Yazici and Iceland’s Hakon Arnar Haraldsson, with the remaining goals coming from Tiago Santos and Amine Messoussa.

There were no big upsets on Saturday although Nice — second in the French league behind Paris Saint-Germain — needed penalty kicks to beat second-tier Auxerre at home.

The Coupe de France will continue on Sunday when amateur sixth-tier club Revel will face the might of French champions PSG and World Cup winner Kylian Mbappé.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.