Paris Saint-Germain were the four-time defending champions, but lost in the final on penalties to Rennes, who won their third Coupe de France title and first since 1971.[2]
Dates
Dates for the first two qualifying round are set by the individual Regional leagues. The remaining qualifying rounds, the seventh and eight round, and the round of 64 take place at weekends. The later rounds up to, but not including, the final, take place on midweek evenings. The final will take place on Saturday 27 April 2019.[3]
The first six rounds, and any preliminaries required, are organised by the Regional Leagues and the Overseas Territories, who allow teams from within their league structure to enter at any point up to the third round. Teams from Championnat National 3 enter at the third round, those from Championnat National 2 enter at the fourth round and those from Championnat National enter at the fifth round.[4]
The number of teams entering at each qualifying round was as follows:
The draw for the seventh round was made in two parts. First the Overseas teams were drawn against opponents from the French League structure who had applied to potentially travel overseas.[5] The main draw took place the following day.
The draw for the overseas teams took place on 30 October 2018.[6] The main draw took place on 31 October 2018.[7]
Matches took place on 16, 17 and 18 November 2018.[8]
Stadium: Stade du Grand Clos Attendance: 450 Referee: Alexandre Decoster
Main draw
As in previous editions of the competition, the main draw was split into 10 regional groups, with the split primarily ensuring an equal distribution of clubs from the different tiers, and secondarily grouping by geography.[9]
The lowest ranked team remaining in the competition at this stage was AS Carrières Grésillons from tier 9 (District division 1).
Matches took place on 16, 17 and 18 November 2018.[8]
The draw for the eighth round was made in two parts. First the remaining overseas team was drawn against opponents from the French League structure who had applied to potentially travel overseas. The overseas team, Aiglon du Lamentin, played at home due to playing their seventh round match away from home. The main draw took place later in the day. Both draws took place on 20 November 2018.[14]
As in previous editions of the competition, the main draw was split into 6 regional groups, with the split primarily ensuring an equal distribution of clubs from the different tiers, and secondarily grouping by geography.[9]
The lowest ranked teams remaining in the competition at this stage were Entente Crest-Aouste and AS Villers Houlgate Côte Fleurie both from tier 8 (Regional League 3).
Matches took place on 8 and 9 December 2018, with three matches postponed until the following weekend.[15][16]
^The match between Entente Crest-Aouste and Le Puy Foot 43 Auvergne was originally scheduled for 8 December 2018, but was postponed due to the demonstrations by the Gilets Jaunes.[18]
Stadium: Stade de la Poterie Attendance: 402 Referee: Valentin Giorgetti
^The match between SC Bastia and US Saint-Omer was originally scheduled for 9 December, but was postponed due to a red weather warning of high winds.[20]
Stadium: Stade du Grand Clos Attendance: 498 Referee: Alexandre Mercier
^The match between US La Charité and Bourges Foot was originally scheduled for 9 December 2018, but was postponed due to the demonstrations by the Gilets Jaunes.[23]
Stadium: Stade Paul Gasser Attendance: 610 Referee: Damien Rossini
Round of 64
The draw for the ninth round (known as the round of 64) took place on 10 December 2018. The 20 Ligue 1 teams joined the draw at this stage. The draw was split into four groups to ensure equal distribution of teams from each tier, with geographical proximity a secondary factor.[25][26]
The lowest ranked teams remaining in the competition at this stage were Olympique Strasbourg and ESC Longueau both from tier 7 (Regional League 2). Olympique Strasbourg entered the competition in the first round, so had been in the competition longest.
Games were played on 4, 5, 6 and 7 January 2019.[27]
^Match originally scheduled for 22 January 2019, but postponed by one day due to the rearrangement of the Ligue 1 match between Angers and Nantes and then further postponed to 27 January due to the incident involving Emiliano Sala.[39][40] It was postponed for a third time to 2 February as repairs to a temporary stand at the stadium had not been completed in time due to inclement weather.[41]
Round of 16
The draw for the eleventh round (known as the round of 16) took place on 24 January 2019. This was an open draw.[42]