Ligue 1 | Gameweek 13

Nov 30, 2024 at 4pm UK

Stade Paul Audrin

Rennesvs.St Etienne

Match preview

It's pretty surprising that relegation favourites St Etienne are above Rennes with over one-third of the season played. It just goes to show how well they've done and how underwhelming the hosts have been.

Rennes are just one point and one place above the relegation zone after losing in Sampaoli's first game in charge.

That means they've now lost three matches in a row without scoring, which is the longest losing streak they've had in 17 years.

Sampaoli will be hoping his team can rediscover the form they showed against St Etienne before Les Verts were relegated three seasons ago, because the Red and Blacks were dominant in this fixture.

Rennes have won five of the last six head-to-heads, which is the same number of wins they had in the 20 meetings prior to that. Four of those victories were accompanied by a clean sheet.

Olivier Dall'Oglio, the St. Etienne boss who used to play for Rennes, has a pretty dismal record against them as a manager. He's never managed to win in any of his seven previous encounters.

The visitors have a bit of momentum going into the game, having beaten bottom-of-the-table Montpellier in an early-season relegation match last weekend.

Those three points moved them out of the bottom three and up to 13th, above Rennes, and onto 13 points, with four wins already representing a great start for the newly-promoted side.

Only one of those 13 points has been earned away from home, which makes St Etienne's problem pretty obvious.

Montpellier have the worst away record in the league, and they're still on zero points. Les Verts also have the worst defensive stats on their travels, having conceded 20 in just six games on the road so far.

Even though it was over two-and-a-half years ago, their most recent results against Rennes are still pretty dismal. They lost both games in their relegation season without scoring a single goal, and conceded seven.

Recent Performance

Rennes Ligue 1 form:LDWLLL

Saint-Etienne Ligue 1 form:WLLWLW

Team News

Sampaoli went back to a 3-4-3 formation for his first game in charge last week, which meant Jota and Ludovic Blas didn't make the starting XI and had to settle for a place on the bench.

There was also some disappointing news for defender Alidu Seidu, as he tore his ACL in the first half at the Pierre-Mauroy. This means he will now miss the rest of the season.

On a positive note, left-back Adrien Truffert will be back in the side after serving a one-match suspension for the Lille defeat, having accumulated three yellow cards.

It looks like St Etienne's Augustine Boakye might miss out due to illness, and he'll be suspended next week because of yellow card accumulation. Yvann Macon, Mickael Nade and Ben Old are still out with knee injuries.

It's still up in the air who'll be up front. It looks like Ibrahim Sissoko will keep his place ahead of Ibrahima Wadji, who's just come back from a setback.

Possible starting lineup

Rennes possible starting lineup:

Mandanda; Hateboer, Ostigard, Faye; Assignon, Matusiwa, Kamara, Nadiga; Gronbaek, Kalimuendo, Gouiri

Saint-Etienne possible starting lineup:

Larsonneur; Appiah, Batubinsika, Abdelhamid, Petrot; Ekwah, Bouchouari, Mouton; Cafaro, Sissoko, Davitashvili