League 1 | AS Monaco defeats Stade Rennais

Rennes woke up too late. The Bretons lost at home to Monaco on Saturday during the 15th day of Ligue 1 (1-2). Close for a long time, the match was broken by the volunteer Vanderson (51st) who was then sent off (74th). This did not prevent Youssouf Fofana from making the break (85th). The penalty converted by Benjamin Bourigeaud (89th) proved insufficient for Julien Stéphan’s players, who were sinking into their difficulties. Those of Adi Hütter provisionally take 2nd place in the ranking.

With Amine Gouiri, Arnaud Kalimuendo and Ludovic Blas starting on one side, Takumini Minamino, Folarin Balogun and Aleksandr Golovin on the other, this duel could promise to be tempting. Except that the two teams, aligned in the same 3-4-3, initially purred, with offensives launched too slowly. Following his performance in Marseille, Rennes did not target any of his three shots in the first period, despite headers in a good position for Arthur Theate (11th) and Gouiri (25th).

Opposite, Steve Mandanda captured Balogun’s shot (41st) after seeing Fofana narrowly miss the target with a header from a free kick (40th). All this was clearly too little and Kalimuendo had only touched 6 small balls before the break. Fortunately for the spectacle, Monaco played with more speed on the restart and Vanderson, who had asked for the ball a lot without being served, was finally heard by Balogun. The American perfectly shifted the Brazilian to the right of the opposing area for a cross shot which left Mandanda no chance (0-1, 51st).

Stéphan launched the novice Mahamadou Nagida, Martin Terrier and Bertug Yildirim (63rd). His team did not really raise the tone but benefited from a boost with a second severe yellow card for Vanderson while the Monegasques made a series of mistakes (75th). Eleven against ten and pushed by their public, the Rennes finally shook themselves but Philipp Köhn and the visitors resisted (79th).

The players from the Rock even managed to double the lead against by Fofana, who imitated Marseillais Azzedine Ounahi by calmly entering the Rennes area before adjusting Mandanda for a first personal goal in L1 this season (0-2, 85th). Like Vanderson, the French international, however, put his team in difficulty a few moments later by conceding a penalty which Benjamin Bourigeaud, disappointing like his partners, was at least able to transform to restart the end of the match (1-2, 90th).

In added time, Gouiri (90th+1) then Nagida (90th+2) called on Köhn, who held on. Rennes once again shows the same deficiencies as with Bruno Genesio and suffers a second consecutive defeat synonymous with 12th place in the standings. For its part, Monaco shines decidedly less but knows how to be solid and efficient to consolidate its place on the podium.