In Brief – A Stade Rennais Preview
Mar 6th, 2019 by 'holic
The beauty of the Europa League preview. What do I know about Stade Rennais? I seem to recall that Hatem Ben Arfa rocked up there and Sylvain Wiltord came through their academy, but that’s about it. Google comes to the rescue. They qualified for the competition by finishing 5th in Ligue 1 last season, but currently sit in 10th place. They came through the group phase as runners up to Dynamo Kiev, and then defeated Real Betis in the round of 32 having only drawn the first leg at home.
More concerning is what team will Unai Emery select to face them in the Roazhon Park. A very strong squad has travelled, but with one eye on Manchester United at the weekend we will probably once again utilise the squad players. Petr Cech is a given to start in goal. Emery’s recent preference for a back four rather than a three could provide opportunities for Carl Jenkinson, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and Sead Kolasinac.
Lucas Torreira is suspended for three Premier League matches and so seems a certain starter here, possibly with Matteo Guendouzi alongside. The attacking midfield trio is the hardest to predict. Aaron Ramsey may be spared for Sunday. Mesut Ozil could play in between Alex Iwobi and Denis Suarez, surely due a start? As Alexandre Lacazette is suspended Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang seems certain to get the nod ahead of Eddie Nketiah.
That eleven should be strong enough to secure a result in a potentially tricky first leg.
The ‘holic pound
I’m having to be guided by the bookmakers on this one. They nervously have us as slight favourites and top of the correct score markets is a 1-1 draw. I have been slightly more optimistic and taken the unusual odds of 33/4 against a 1-2 away win.
Apologies for the brevity of this post. Have a good one ‘holics.
27 Responses to “In Brief – A Stade Rennais Preview”
Hey ‘holic. Here is hoping our performance will make the Rennes supporters wish they had stade home.
(departs with coat in hand into the cold)
Second! Not a trophy, but heh?
I’m enjoying the strange sensation of being in the overwhelming majority, wholly ignorant of Stade Rennais.
I anticipate something between 2-0 to the bad guys and 0-2 to us. I feel that the result is mainly in our hands, but that is a less than informed feeling due to lack of knowledge of the opponents.
Pass me a goat to sacrifice, please, someone.
COYG
It’s a good job some of us have done our homework on Rennes then isn’t it!? Actually all I know is it is in Brittany , Petr Cech began his career there and it is the club that Yann M’vila who we were almost going to sign umpteen times in Arsene’s time used to play for and Ben Arfa who scored a fine goal for Newcastle against us a few years ago does now. However the star is a Senegalese player who also plays wide , Ismaïla Sarr. We have been linked with him ( surprise, surprise) several times and he has played well in the Europa. Their result at Betis was a standout effort in the last round and suggests we need to take them seriously. Having left Mavropanos out of our Europa League squad we have very few options at CB with ManUre looming on Sunday and I think Holic is pretty close with his suggested squad. I think Unai would be pilloried for a draw although I don’t think it would be a bad result but I think we will shade it 1-0.
I see United are currently winning. I hope they have a really tough game which they lose heavily eventually with lots of knocks and niggles.
Evening H
Hope your health is improving,and you are still on target for reappearance at the Ems next month.
Couple of stats i can add to yours and TTG’s is, i read somewhere that they are unbeaten for the past 3 months,so obviously playing with a lot of confidence.
Also we have never lost an away game in Cup comps to a French side.
8 wins and 5 draws,and have never lost a tie overall after both legs.
So history is on our side.
Interesting that the French Ligue allowed Rennes to postpone their league game last weekend,to give them 8 uninterrupted days to prepare for the game against us,that’s how seriously they are taking it.
Again i expect a side with a few changes from the w/end,but if we put in a shift like we did then,fingers crossed we will be okay.
Manure go through on a PK after a VAR look at a handball in the box that took forever to review at the death. PSG deserved to go out, gave away two howlers of gift goals early on.
I “enjoyed” the experienve of getting lost while driving across Rennes twice in 24 hours in 1984. I was also so tired on the first of those occasions that I attempted to conduct an argument, in French, with a French waiter. Needless to say, the attempt was not a success.
In football-related news,
COYG
No way in a sane universe was that a penalty. Peter Walton said it was but he was a lousy ref. Are United the luckiest side on earth?
TTG
Apart from the dodgy pen,Utd first goal was from a daft back pass,and the 2nd was from a keeper error,but still PSG had enough chances to win.
But again as i have said before,like Bayern in Germany, and this season Juve in Italy,PSG play in a very weak league,and don’t really have any hard tough games,so are a bit soft and play with a sense of arrogance and entitlement in the CL.
Utd had 10 first team players missing tonight,and should have lost comfortably,but somehow they find themselves in the last 8.
Go figure.
More concerning is the bubble of super confidence they will bring to the Ems on Sunday.
Unbeaten in the league since Maureen got his marching orders.
We will have to be at the top of our game to beat them.
Another round of CL games for the Mancs and the neighbours is no bad thing. Loads up their fixture list a bit more and tires out their legs in the pointy end of the season.
As far as Real Madrid goes, the cheapest thing for Perez would just be to buy the Ajax team lock, stock and barrel and rebrand it.
I do think, though, that the football gods exacted the proper retribution on Sergio Ramos for his cheating in taking a deliberate yellow in the first leg.
The Ramos thing is amusing Ned.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving
fellow 🙂
Rennes are mid table, don’t score
many, don’t let in many. Basically,
if we play to our ability we should
beat them. 2-0 would be dandy.
The Guvnor’s XI looks about right
though I’d prefer AMN at RB and
it may be Xhaka to start as he was
rested last week.
A goal for Auba, a clean sheet, and
no injuries.
I am pretty sure Unai Emery would have permitted himself a wry smile at the final whistle,as his former club that summarily showed him the door last season, self destructed in the CL against United.
Tuchel been sitting on his tuchus too long?
Top stuff ‘Holic and ‘holics. As always.
Great to read that Emi Martinez won Reading’s February Player of the Month award. Highest saves per game in the division, commands his area, and being praised for his distribution, particularly with ball at feet.
Hopefully an indicator that he can take Cech’s place, with no need for the club to spend.
Up the Arsenal.
Unai rings the changes again but no Suárez. It’s a strong team but it does suggest Dennis is surplus to our requirements . Mustafi at RB again!
Get in. Iwobi passes it in.
Mustafi is thick.
Anna’s general footballing skills, control, passing etc are so poor.
Mustafi is not the only one who is thick, Sokratis commits two yellow card fouls and is red carded and Renner score. 1-1. The Arsenal we know., a defensive wreck.
Just saw one replay of it but it definitely seemed as if Sokratis was fouled first and then it was just a tangle- a coming together of sorts. The second yellow is way too harsh from another European referee who just seems to derive joy out of brandishing cards.
Hopefully we will take off our form player Mkhitaryan (thereby protecting him for the weekend game against United) and replace him with Maitland Niles in the second half. Massive test of character coming up in the second half with 10 men.
Agree totally with Ksn. The lack of brain cells possessed at times by the modern day footballer seems to have sunk to an all time low.
Sokratis is an idiot, always has been
i reckon xhaka has got the fewest brain cells of all of them, maybe lowest of all footballers currently playing
Monreal is one of the more disciplined Arsenal players, but his lack of tracking back for the third goal was shocking. We have left ourselves with a mountain to climb in the second leg…
2-1 would have been ok in the circumstances. 3-1 is a killer.
I know the defence is makeshift, down to ten men, but that “defending” was terrible on the third goal. You can’t just let the cross come in with no pressure.
I think Monreal might have been the player furthest forward, standing around after losing the ball at the other end?
I wasn’t paying that much attention but it looked like it on the replay.
Sounds like it all went downhill from the scoreline Inknow we scored first, WTF happened?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well, that went well.
I have very little idea about any of those tactical decisions by Emery this evening.