Blast from the (recent) past : PSG

6th of October 2007 : Rennes travel to the Parc des Princes to take on a PSG side that had yet to win at home. After a searing 2-0 home loss against Sochaux (19th) at Rennes, it was anyone’s bet what the score could be.

Rennes’ good news was the return of Jérôme Leroy in midfield, whilst PSG were boosted by the return of Pedro Pauleta amongst the starting XI, as well as new Brazilian defender Ceara’s proper “début”.

The game started out pretty evenly, with chances either way. After 15 minutes, Mbia was injured and replaced by Hansson, to give the Mensah-Hansson pair it’s second try. Rennes reacted rather well to this as Jérôme Leroy scored his second league goal this season, chipping the ball over France international goalkeeper Mickaël Landreau after 19 minutes.

The game remained however quite even, with Digard and Didot running the midfields and stopping Leroy and Rothen from showcasing their offensive talent. At half-time, the score was still one-nil for Rennes though. The second half started in similar fashion, and the Parisian formation managed to honour belated president Borelli’s memory when Ceara was left completely un-marked, and his strong volley managed to find the back of the net (53rd), even though Luzi got his hands to it.

Fifteen minutes later however, Le Guen made what I feel was a critial mistake, when he took Digard and N’gog off to bring on Frau and Diané. Without Digard’s presence in midfield, Rennes seemed to play more freely, and only 3 minutes later, Leroy unleashed a long pass down the wing that Jimmy Briand latched on to, beating Zoumana Camara with his speed, and then slotting the ball past Landreau to make the score 2-1 after 73 minutes.

As the final minutes loomed, Rennes strengthened their grasp on the outcome of the game, making Paris’ chances wither away with each pass. After the ex-Parisian Leroy had scored one and given an assist, it was Wiltord who celebrated his first goal with only 5 minutes left on the clock, concluding a superb counter-attack he had started, before passing to Briand, who coolly beat Clément before giving the ball back to “Nino” to get his goalscoring record underway.

Starting elevens :

PSG : Mickaël Landreau - Ceara, Sylvain Armand, Grégory Bourillon, Zoumana Camara - Didier Digard, Jérémy Clément, Clément Chantôme, Jérôme Rothen - David N’gog, Pedro Pauleta (Cap.)

Rennes : Patrice Luzi - Rod Fanni, John Mensah, Stéphane Mbia, Erik Edman - Jérôme Leroy, Bruno Cheyrou, Etienne Didot (Cap.), Olivier Thomert - Jimmy Briand, Sylvain Wiltord

Category: Competitions, Team News

Tags: Competitions, Ligue 1, PSG, Team News

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