Gambardella: The Stade Rennais eliminated

The Stade Rennes U19s, who had knocked the FC Lorient out of the competitions after the penalties for the last two seasons, have this time been beaten by the Merlus on the very same exercise.

On the synthetic pitch at Le Moustoir, Rennes came once again, as they have since the beginning of the competition, with a very young team, much younger without a doubt than Lorient’s.
The young Rennais were dictating the pace of the game however, especially in the second-half. After a fairly even forty-five minutes, they upped their game to create the best opportunities, without managing to beat Lorient’ goalkeeper Zerillo. At the end of 90 minutes, the game had remained goalless.

Just as in 2009 and 2010, it took the penalty-shootouts to untie the teams. And this time, the Merlus came out on top, missing only one of their spot-kicks.
Despite this elimination in the Round of 16, the team managed by Régis Le Bris managed a good run in the competition, having beaten or equalled several much more experienced teams.
Malgré cette élimination en huitièmes de finale, l’équipe de Régis Le Bris aura réalisé un beau parcours, ayant dominé ou tenu tête à des équipes souvent nettement plus expérimentées.