Stade Rennes is out of the Europa League

«The Europa League is a good opportunity to let the squad live, it’s an opportunity to give an opportunity to players of high quality. I have 18 or 19 players likely to start games”, Frédéric Antonetti explained in the press conference on Wednesday.
Looking at the first half played by his men, it is difficult to agree with the Rennes manager on this point. With several players lacking pace, confidence, and committing huge technical imprecisions, it didn’t look like the spectators would be treated with spectacular football. By all means, Rennes didn’t play anywhere near as well as they had against Atlético, with a team already missing a few key players.

Unable to find precision, unable to truly go forward and lost in Udinese’s reinforced midfield, the Rennais went through the first half in a ghostly way. As a symbol of this “absence”, the number of shots made towards Handanovic’s goal during the first forty-five minutes: zero.
The Italian team, which came into this game with its best team, except for Di Natale and Basta, didn’t have to force too much to take the upper hand in this first half, taking control of the ball and of the game. The players from Friuli were rewarded with the best chances, without managing to beat Costil however.

Just before the end of the first quarter of an hour, a bad control by Boye offered a first huge chance to the Italian team. The Ghanaian team missed his clearance and the ball bounced on his chin. The ball was recovered by Floro Flores, who faced Costil, but his outside-foot shot bounced against the left post of the Rennes goalkeeper (12’).
Twelve minutes later, it was on a free-kick that the players from Friuli worried Costil again, with Benatia’s header bouncing on the top of the crossbar (24’). A little bit later, Fabbrini forced the former Caen man to a save on a crossed shot (28’), and then Agyemang-Badu blasted a volley that skimmed the outright after a corner-kick poorly cleared by the defence (37’).

Suffering, Rennes managed to reach the interval on a blank score-line. In the second half, Frédéric Antonetti made three changes to his team in the first fifteen minutes. At half-time, Mandjeck replaced Boye and gave more stability to his defence, before the entrances of Pitroipa and Doumbia to replace the invisible Brahimi and Dalmat gave more relief to Rennes’ attacking game.
Globally improving, the Rennais continued struggling to create any chances against a really well coordinated defence. On a confusion following a good action by Hadji on the right side, Pajot blasted the ball over the bar (56’), before Pitroipa – tricking his way past Danilo in the penalty area – stumbled across Handanovic who punched away his shot from a difficult angle (75’).

Consequently, Udinese wasn’t as present as in the first half, even though they remained a threat onto Costil’s goal. Although a draw was an acceptable result for the Italians, a victory would have guaranteed their qualification for the knock-out stages. Consequently, the Rennes goalkeeper was forced to several saves, managing to keep his goal clear every time he was put to contribution, especially on a shot by Basta which he pushed away, with Floro Flores not manging to pounce on the rebound (69’).
In the closing moments of the game the Rouge et Noir managed to create another big chance, when Handanovic misjudged a corner-kick by Pitroipa. The ball, rolling in front of the goal, wasn’t exploited quickly enough by the Rennais. Hadji finally recovered it, but stumbled one last time on the Italian defence (90’).

The two teams finally settled for a draw, reflecting their respective domination pretty well, one half each, but they would welcome the result in a different way at the final whistle. For the Rennais, the European adventure is now officially going to end on December 15th in Madrid; for the Italian, this result is a big step towards qualification for the round of 32.

Match Facts

STADE RENNAIS FC 0 - 0 UDINESE CALCIO

Europa League, Group I, Game Day 5
Wednesday, November 30th 2011, 19:00

Stade de la route de Lorient
Attendance : about 17 000 spectators

Referee: Sergey Karasev

Yellow Cards: Dalmat (30’), Mandjeck (51’) and Tettey (90’+1) for Rennes ; Doubai (58’) and Fabbrini (88’) for Udine.

- Stade rennais FC : Costil - Jebbour, Kana-Biyik, Boye (Mandjeck, 46’), Mavinga - Tettey, Pajot, Dalmat (Doumbia, 60’) - Boukari, Hadji (cap), Brahimi (Pitroipa, 55’).

Manager: Frédéric Antonetti.

- Udinese Calcio : Handanovic (cap) - Benatia, Danilo, Ekstrand - Isla (Basta, 60’), Agyemang-Badu, Doubai (Pinzi, 82’), Asamoah, Armero - Fabbrini, Floro Flores.

Manager: Francesco Guidolin.