Edon Zhegrova and LOSC ruin Jorge Sampaoli’s premiere with Rennes

This Sunday, Stade Rennais traveled to the LOSC pitch for an important meeting for several reasons. Authors of a disastrous start to the season, the Bretons needed to quickly collect points in order to maintain their European hopes at the end of the season. To rectify the situation, the Rennes leaders called on Jorge Sampaoli before the break. The Argentine technician therefore played his first match this afternoon and a victory was imperative to perfectly launch his mandate. To do this, the former OM coach decided to align an innovative 3-5-2 where trust was placed in a Gouiri-Kalimuendo duo in attack. For its part, Lille, who had the opportunity to come back to within a point of OM in the event of a victory, were in the classic style and Bruno Genesio was also keen to win against his former club.

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From the first moments, the meeting was very competitive. Even though the first opportunities took a while to come, the intensity was high and the first contacts were rough. Problem is, injuries on the Rennes side dampened the enthusiasm at the start of the match. On a harmless clearance, Alidu Seidu held the back of his knee, writhing in pain. A terrible blow for the Bretons who also almost lost Lorenz Assignon a few minutes later (19th). Taking SRFC out of its match, these injuries also gave LOSC more freedom to organize offensively, like the first fuse lit by Mitchell Bakker (25th). Finally, the sanction fell with Edon Zhegrova.

Rennes failed to get back into the game

Checked by Steve Mandanda a few minutes earlier (39th), the Kosovar took advantage of Jonathan David’s missed shot to emerge and deceive Mandanda with a beautiful cross shot (1-0, 43rd). In front of the scoreboard, the Mastiffs continued to create big opportunities after returning from the locker room. However, success was not necessarily on their side against aggressive Rennais, like this goal refused to Jonathan David for an offside position at the start of the action (57th). However, the second half was quite calm in both areas and the two teams often lacked the imagination to really make the difference in the areas that count.

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Despite the entry into play of offensive talents on both sides, the score ultimately did not change at the end of a fairly moribund second act. At the end of the match, Edon Zhegrova even came out grimacing, visibly injured in the adductors. A small warning which could prevent him from playing against Bologna in the Champions League this Wednesday. With this narrow victory, LOSC consolidates its fourth place and remains in contact with OM and AS Monaco. For its part, Rennes is treading water in the dangerous areas of the ranking. In addition to this new disappointing result, Jorge Sampaoli misses his debut. Undermined by Seidu’s serious injury at the start of the match, the Argentinian was unable to prevent his team’s third consecutive defeat in the elite. He will therefore look to win his first match on the Rennes bench next week against Saint-Etienne (Saturday, 5 p.m.). In the meantime, Rennes remains 14th.