They haven’t even got their own stadium

By: Shazback | September 20th, 2007

No wonder we won then…

I’ll stop the joking. Rennes‘ trip to Sofia in Bulgaria had everything to be a trick game : Rennes were favorites, on a good winning streak, and without any niggling injuries; Sofia were the underdogs, only 3rd of their domestic division, without any ’stars’, but were playing at home, and were undefeated since the start of the season.

Jérôme Leroy against Lokomotiv Sofia
Jerôme Leroy is conquering my heart each time he pulls on the red jersey

I can feel this season is different from the last few, however. Whilst two seasons ago, we qualified in similar style for the group round of the UEFA Cup by beating Osasuna 3-1 on aggregate, Rennes was struggling in the league and ended up losing all 4 games in the group stage, finishing in the humiliating 5th place behind the “enormous” Rapid Bucharest, Shakhtar Donetsk, VfB Stuttgart and PAOK FC… But a lot of things are different this time ’round : Rennes had rested 2 of the best players in the squad (Mensah and Didot), whilst one of the big hopes in attack only got 15 minutes at the end of the game (Emerson).

The game was good, but Rennes did seem a little more exposed than in the recent league games, something I’ll account for by pointing out that Didot was replaced by Jeunechamp, who isn’t quite as good, even if he has a lot more “fighting” spirit. Cheyrou instead of Marveaux also showed that Dréossi was happy to pretend he was a little Benitez, and even though Cheyrou didn’t set the slightly muddy Bulgarian pitch ablaze, he did enough, and by “enough” I mean scored a goal.

To be fair on the Bulgarians, they didn’t get close enough to be half as dangerous as Rennes were. They kept on shooting from afar, apparently unaware that Pouplin was back in goal, and he could handle any shots that came his way with confidence. Davtchev ran Sofia’s midfield, but he wasn’t able to contain Leroy, truly the best player on the pitch today. Whilst Sorlin was (yet again) dissapointing without being bad, Leroy was simply fantastic. Sorlin, on the left wing, seemed to be lacking the ability to find space to beat his man, whilst Leroy was simply everywhere, always getting the best of his marker.

Hansson put in once more a very good defensive performance, with a lot of headers that served Rennes’ cause, but also good positional work to cut out runs by Baldovaliev and Anunovic. He partnered once more with M’Bia, who is still improving, and had a good defensive game, with a very good ability to win challenges for loose balls. M’Bia’s impressive running and Hansson’s impressive heading… A great central pair, and Mensah and Borne are making sure that they don’t lose their form. Fanni and Edman contained their wings, but without much to do, the Bulgarian side rarely using them. They both provided support in attack, mainly Fanni, but without going too far forwards, obviously with orders from Dréossi to prevent counter-attacks through Karadzinov and Ivanov.

Wiltord and Thomert paired up front, with one (Thomert) hoping to continue his goalscoring streak after 2 goals against Metz, and the other still to break his duck. Neither scored, but Thomert and Wiltord were too much for Savic and Varbanov, Thomert’s pace getting the best of the attempts to play the offside trap early on, and Wiltord’s technique creating spaces and goal chances. The only reason why Thomert and Wiltord didn’t get on the goal-sheet was Lokomotiv’s goalkeeper : Golubovic. Honestly, if I didn’t know who the sides were, I would have guessed that Golubovic was the goalkeeper of a good or very good side in one of the “big 5″ leagues. Reflex saves, cutting out crosses, dives, throws… He did everything, and most of it was superb. He kept his side in the game for the return in Rennes, preventing a 5 or 6-goal defecit.

The goals came from behind. Leroy scored twice, the first coming after he ran through Sofia’s defence on a counter-attack, served Thomert, who had two shots parried by the goalkeeper, and then pounced on the ball to open the score. His lead was short-lived though, as only 12 playing minutes (and 5 minutes into the second half) Sofia pulled level thanks to a nice free-kick by Davtchev, who managed to curl the ball around the wall and out of Pouplin’s reach. The game wasn’t even though, and Rennes pulled back in front thanks to Cheyrou’s quick reflexes on a Marveaux free-kick that was half-blocked by the wall. Whilst Emerson came on for his 15 minutes of fame, I was hoping he’d get one, but it was Leroy who got Rennes’ third and his second, by calmly slotting a shot past Golubovic from the penalty spot, unmarked on a pass by Briand. All four defenders were on Emerson, so at least he’ll have given space to his team-mates!

Video :

I forgot to mention that Dréossi celebrated his 50th game with Rennes when he visited Lorient last week-end, so there you go.
Also, I’m sick of the letter “V” for at least a week. They had 20 “V”s in their side yesterday!