Rennes continues its recovery by winning (3-2) at Lyon, which is sinking

Rennes, which led (3-0) at half-time, finally won (3-2) at the expense of a Lyon (OL) team that was too weak in the first period, Friday January 26, at Groupama Stadium, at the opening of the nineteenth day of Ligue 1, continuing its recovery and sending OL back to its doubts despite a too-late reaction.

The Bretons are in ninth place. They remain on a draw in Toulouse (0-0) and three victories in the league against Clermont, Nice and OL while still being in the race in the Coupe de France after eliminating Guingamp then Marseille.

OL, with this defeat at home, remains stuck at the bottom of the ranking (sixteenth and therefore a barrier) under the threat of Clermont (two points) which hosts Strasbourg on Sunday. And with 16 points in nineteen days, the Lyonnais reached their worst total in the elite at this stage of the championship.

A double from Martin Terrier, a former Lyon player where he was in failure, and a goal from Désiré Doué gave Rennes a comfortable lead.

Terrier opened the scoring with a powerful shot under the bar (22nd minute) and scored the third goal following a corner (41st) after Doué got past the Lyon defense and Dejan Lovren (36th). The Bretons then crossed the entire terrain, taking advantage of the passivity of the Rhodanians. Before this match, Rennes had only scored five away goals this season in Ligue 1.

A year that starts off badly for Lyon

Although they are still qualified for the Coupe de France, OL got off to a bad start to the year in the league with two defeats in two days at Le Havre and against Rennes.

While waiting for the experienced Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matic, a former Rennes player, the transfer window has not progressed sufficiently. The last days of the market will be decisive in strengthening a workforce that remains weak, despite everything.

The two young players recruited, Malick Fofana (17 million euros) and Gift Orban (13 million euros), who previously played at La Gantoise, in the Belgian championship, still have a lot of work to do, despite the price of their acquisition , to bring the hoped-for added value to a truly low workforce.

The choice of coach Pierre Sage, with a 5-3-2 starting eleven, was not conclusive, but he could cite the little room for maneuver he has.

Against Rennes, he also made three changes at half-time in this poorly started game in order to restore momentum to his team, switching to 3-4-3 with the entries of Gift Orban, at the place of Mahamadou Diawara, and Ernest Nuamah, returned from the African Cup of Nations, to the detriment of Rayan Cherki, Henrique succeeding Fofana in the position of left piston and reducing the gap by taking back a cross delivered from the right by Ainsley Maitland-Niles (3-1, 57th).

The second half was to the advantage of the Lyonnais who stifled their dominant opponents before half-time and who seemed set to inflict a correction on OL.

But Rennes was able to resist despite a second goal scored by Alexandre Lacazette at the end of the game (78th). Lyon will try to react on February 4 with the reception of Marseille.