Jérôme Leroy breaks the Penalty kick curse

A little bit of an occasion yesterday, during Rennes’ victory against the Legia Warsaw (1-0), as Jérome Leroy converted a spotkick to score Rennes’ only goal of this game. Nothing extraordinary it seems, except for the facts that the Rennes players seemed to have gone into a negative streak in this exercise over the last few weeks.

On July 2nd, during the World Cup quarter-final against Uruguay, Asamoah Gyan had a qualifying penalty during the second half of extra-time. His powerful shot bounced on the bar and flew in Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium’s skies.

Sylvain Marveaux and Victor Hugo Montaño knew the same misfortune, this time playing for Rennes. Against Nantes (1-1), Marveaux shot on Lubos Kamenar’s right post. Against Lorient (1-2), Montaño’s shot was deflected out of the goal by Lionel Cappone.

In fact, the last penalty kick scored by Frédéric Antonetti’s men was scored at Le Mans (1-3, Gameweek 30) in March. On that occasion, Ismaël Bangoura had managed the kick, beating Le Mans keeper Didier Ovono.