Good things come in threes.

By: Shazback | October 21st, 2007

Rennes are 3rd in Ligue 1. A 3-0 win over Le Mans means that Rennes is only 4 points behind Lyon, and 1 behind Nancy, who have two games in hand.

Le Mans’ emblem looks like something out of a video game.

Before the game, Rennes were 5th with 18 points, behind Bordeaux only on goals scored. Le Mans were 3rd, with 19 points, within a win of taking the lead of Ligue 1 for a few days should Lyon lose against Monaco. But Le Mans were unable to take any points against Rennes, whilst Lyon soared to yet another win. Bordeaux’s draw means that Rennes are the happier of the 4 teams that played, and shows that perhaps instead of being between Lyon and Marseille, the title race could be between Rennes and Lyon…

With three wins on the trot before the trip to Rennes, Le Mans were in good form, even though there had been some risk of injuries to a few squad members during the lead-up to the game. Gervinho, De Melo and Romaric had been reported by various media sources to have knocks. Sadly for Rennes, none of these reports were founded, since all three started against Rennes. Le Mans’ line-up was their best XI, with Pélé in goal, Romaric and Matsui in midfield and De Melo and Gervinho in attack as key players. Rennes chose a similarly predictable starting XI, the only meager changes from a “best XI” being the absence of Pouplin between the goal-posts because of a thigh injury and Briand’s absence from the match sheet. Luzi and Pagis filled in, and both managed to look as though they were first team players.

Right from the start, Rennes took control of the game, but Wiltord’s shot missed the target (2′), after a lovely through-ball by Leroy. Le Mans earned a good free-kick (10′) just outside the box, but Romaric’s shot was easily pushed away by Luzi, conceding a corner. The corner would turn out to be the origin of first goal of the game, with a counter-attack lead by Fanni, then Leroy, who chipped the ball through to Sorlin. Sorlin managed to control the ball and then thread it through to Pagis with a delicious pass. Alone against Pélé, Pagis didn’t need a second chance, and he crucified the young goalkeeper with an unstoppable shot from the edge of the box (11′).

Pagis begun it all…

Le Mans didn’t resign, and for the following 15 minutes, they were attacking continuously. Romaric (14′), Coutadeur (15′) Gervinho (18′ & 20′), Chalmé (19′) and De Melo (23′) tried to fool Luzi, but they were unable to level the score. Mensah and Hansson seemed to be unable to cope with the speed Le Mans were attacking with, but they still forced Le Mans to shoot from afar, and put pressure on their opponents, leading to slightly weak shots by the mancean strikers. Nonetheless, after 15 minutes of clear domination by Le Mans, Rennes seemed to get back into the match, and after a long passing sequence, Fanni gave the ball away just outside Le Mans’ box. Sorlin intercepted a poor pass by Camara and managed to find Leroy in the box, who gave him back the ball. Sorlin tried to cross the ball, but Calvé managed to hack the ball away from Wiltord, Pélé having been unable to cut the cross’ path (29′).

However, Le Mans regained their domination of the game, but seemed to play deeper, creating less problems for Rennes’ back four, and more trouble for Didot and Cheyrou, who weren’t having their best game this season by a long shot. The best chances Le Mans had came off free kicks, with Matsui connecting with a first-post ball by Romaric, but his shot was too weak to trouble Luzi (34′), and then Romaric hit a direct free kick just a touch off target (39′).

The second half started in a similar fashion to the end of the first, with Le Mans going forwards and Rennes defending slightly awkwardly. Sessegnon’s shot was blocked by Luzi (48′), and then Coutadeur hit his lob over the crossbar (49′). Rennes reacted although, and it came from a player I didn’t expect to see : Luzi. He shouted at Mensah, Hansson, Fanni and Edman, but also seemed to be heard by Cheyrou and Didot, with all six players raising their game for the last 40 minutes! Nice to see that Rennes has new players with character, but dissapointing that Mensah, Didot, Leroy or Wiltord -the old guard- didn’t manage to do it first…

…Wiltord made it two…

Cheyrou connected with a long corner kick by Didot, but his header bounced over the crossbar (51′), despite having beaten Pélé and his marker, Cheyrou didn’t get his first goal for Rennes. It was the waking call for Rennes though, and one minute later, Fanni played a long ball down the wing for Pagis, who held the ball up and gave it back to Fanni. Fanni passed the ball to Leroy, but his shot was blocked by a defender. Fanni got the ball back however, and gave Leroy a second chance. This time, he didn’t shoot, since he spotted Wiltord, and his through ball set Wiltord alone against Pélé, allowing Wiltord to make it 2-0. And to think that a lot of people (including me) were dubious when Rennes bought so many players that were either old of relatively unknown! Four of them combined perfectly to create a nice goal that gave Rennes a little slack against Le Mans!

Le Mans tried to react by bringing Le Tallec and Maiga on, but instead of giving more offensive options, it seemed to disorganise Le Mans, giving Rennes a clear grasp on the last half-hour of the game. Le Mans resorted to playing long balls for their strikers, since Didot and Cheyrou took a firm grasp on the midfield, and Rennes controlled their attacks, playing deep to tire Le Mans and changing wings to disrupt a solid mancean back four. Le Tallec (62′) and De Melo (84′) for Le Mans, Wiltord (64′ & 70′) and Sorlin (76′) for Rennes animated the last half-hour with shots that never seemed to be really dangerous, with defenders and midfielders being more used than strikers in the dying stages of the match. Julian Esteban did get a goal in stoppage time however, after Cerdan completely failed to control the ball when he intercepted a long ball by Sorlin.

…And Esteban made it 3 goals for 3 points to go 3rd.

Overall, a game where Le Mans can be dissapointed by the weight of the defeat, but Rennes deserved to win, with more control on the game overall, and a more creative front line.

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