Stade Rennais Suffers Heavy Defeat Against AC Milan in Europa League Clash

Stade Rennais has come back to earth, and the fall is quite brutal. Despite a generally encouraging performance at San Siro, as hot as ever, Julien Stéphan’s men return to France with a heavy but logical defeat in their bag (3-0). AC Milan was far too strong an opponent for them, and the Rossoneri were notably carried by a double from Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The return play-off at Roazhon Park should only be a formality for the Italians, who have one foot and four toes in the knockout stages of the Europa League.

A class difference, or maybe a little more. Rennes, however, did not do poorly in Milan, but its room for maneuver was far too little against a team accustomed to European games and which was still in the running in the Champions League a few weeks earlier. The Bretons will still have resisted as best they could in a complicated first quarter of an hour, marked by a bar found by Rafael Leão (7th), an attempt above Tijjani Reijnders (8th) or even a missed recovery by Yunus Musah (10th).

But while the danger mainly came from the left, Milan opened the scoring from the right, with a cross from Alessandro Florenzi, a little too alone, placed on the head of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (1-0, 32nd ). Two oversights for which Rennes paid dearly.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Credit: Getty Images

Milan, way too far above

Trailing only 1-0 at the break, Stade Rennais was not doing so badly. But he took a big blow to the head at the start of the second half. Receiving a corner, Steve Mandanda repelled a header from Simon Kjaer on Loftus-Cheek, then author of a double (2-0, 47th). Confidence, already low, has crumbled. And the third goal arrived too quickly, in a lightning action, with a one-two between Théo Hernandez and Rafael Leão, concluded by an unstoppable flat foot from the Portuguese (3-0, 53rd). The addition could have been even greater, without decisive saves from Mandanda (57th, 73rd) and an intervention in front of his line from Azor Matusiwa (73rd).

The worst ? Rennes may still have some regrets. There was undoubtedly room to score a small goal which could have been a glimmer of hope for the return home play-off. The Milanese quickly put themselves in management mode and the particularly notable entry of Amine Gouiri should have made it possible to achieve this reduction in the score.

The Algerian international had some ammunition and he even called on Mike Maignan, author of a double save (73rd). It will take more than a miracle to reach the knockout stages of the Europa League after the return match. But it remains a good learning experience to gain maturity and experience a more ambitious second half of the season in Ligue 1.

2024-02-16 00:44:00
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