RENNES  2  (1)  TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR  2  (1) 
Date : –  16th September 2021 Kick off : –  17.45
Competition : –  Europa Conference Group G Venue : –  Roazhon Park
Crowd : –  22,888
Referee : –  Halis Ozkahya (TUR) Linesmen : – Mr. Caglar Uyarcan; Mr. Ali Saygin Ogel  (TUR)
Fourth official : –  Alper Ulusoy  (TUR)
Weather : – Dry, warm
Rennes kicked off the first half attacking the Tribune Mordelles end
Playing time : –   90 + 8 minutes

 

RENNES TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
GOAL-SCORERS
    Tait  22m 31s   Bade (o.g.)  10m 20s
    Laborde  70m 59s   Hojbjerg  75m 07s
CARDS
  Martin (handball)  90+4   Bryan (foul on Traore)  82
 

 

RENNES TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
1.   Romain SALIN 22.   Pierluigi GOLLINI
     
27.   Hamari TRAORE (c)    2.   Matt DOHERTY
4.   Loic BADE  25.   Japhet TANGANGA
6.    Nayef AGUERD 14.   Joe RODON
3.   Adrien TRUFFERT  ( 20.    Berger MELING  79) 33.   Ben DAVIES  
     
8.   Baptiste SANTAMARIA  ( 28.   Jonas MARTIN  86  ) 29.   Oliver SKIPP
28.   Tanguy NDOMBELE  ( 20.   DELE Alli  79)
24.    Gaetan LABORDE    11.   BRYAN Gil 
14.    Benjamin BOURIGEAUD   
20.    Flavien TAIT     27.   Lucas MOURA  ( 44.   Dane SCARLETT  54)
10.    Kamaldeen SULEMANA  ( 26.   Lesley UGOCHUKWU  79) 10.   Harry KANE  (c)  ( 12.   EMERSON Royal  54)
  23.   Steven BERGWIJN  (  5.   Pierre-Emile HOJBJERG  30   )
9.    Serhou GUIRASSY  ( 39.   Mathys TEL   90+2)  
Substitutes Substitutes
16.   Alfred GOMIS 1.   Hugo LLORIS (c)
30.   Pepe BONET 40.   Brandon AUSTIN
19.   Andy DIOUF 3.   Sergio REGUILON
22.   Lorenz ASSIGNON 46.   Malachi FAGAN-WALCOTT
23.   Warmed OMARI 49.   Tobi OMOLE
18.   Matthias ABLINE 43.   Nile JOHN
37.   Loum TCHAOUNA 8.   Harry WINKS
54.    Dilan MARKANDAY

 

Manager : – Bruno Genesio Manager : –  Nuno Espirito Santo
Kit Supplier : –  Puma Kit Supplier : –  Nike
Shirt Sponsor : –  Samsic Shirt Sponsor : –  AIA
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  ?? Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  cinch
Colours : –
Shirts : – Red with black side panel
Shorts : –  Black
Socks : – Black

Colours : –
Shirts : – White
Shorts : –  White
Socks : –  White

 

MATCH REPORT

Spurs got a point from a 2-2 in Rennes in an up and down game with an up and down performance, but the major outcome was an injury crisis with two more wide men likely to be out of the game at the weekend.

Nuno Espirito Santo rang the changes, but there was a smattering of first teamers in the starting line-up, including Tanguy Ndombele who was making his first start since late April.  Rennes were without a few of their regular starters with Jeremy Doku, a striker Spurs had been linked with, one of them.

Spurs began the game well, holding the ball well with some decent passing.  An early positive move from Tanguy Ndombele saw him ghost past a couple of players before playing the ball left, but Bergwijn’s shot was blocked. The home crowd were very excitable with a rise in volume every time they made a successful pass or put the ball out for a throw-in.

A great piece of skill by Ndombele kept the ball in play and his back-heel to Skipp was moved on to Harry Kane, whose first time pass sent Lucas Moura away on the right. He made good ground and was moving inside, when his pass across the box towards came off the Rennes defender Loic Bady sending it past his goalkeeper, who was going the other way. The finish may have been fortunate, but the play leading up to it was excellent and gave Tottenham a good start with ten minutes gone.

Rennes captain Traore went face to face with Bergwijn when he knocked the ball away and the home side started putting in some heavy tackles, as they tried to get a reaction from the Spurs players. With a noisy crowd behind them, Tottenham had to be careful that the referee wasn’t influenced by the goings on. Spurs got away on the other flank but the ball in from the left was too high for Moura to make anything of it.

Rennes’ Bourigeaud fired in a shot from the edge of the box that Pierluigi Gollini beat out and Truffert headed the ball at the unattended goal as it bounced up, but he put it over the top. When they won the ball in front of the Spurs penalty box on the left, the ball was played to Tait, who bent it around Joe Rodon and past Gollini into his bottom left hand corner to level with 29 minutes on the clock. It was a good strike and perhaps the pressure was building, but the lack of urgency when the ball was lost cost us the goal.

Spurs not only lost the goal but also lost Bergwijn, who was clattered late on his ankle, curtailing his participation and bringing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg into the fray. It was still Rennes who were having the better of the play and had a couple more shots that were well off target. Interestingly, Traore wasn’t above kicking the ball away when Spurs had a free-kick, without an word from the referee.

When high balls were played forward or into the box, Rodon was doing very well in attacking them. It is this sort of dominance that we have needed for a while now. Four minutes before half-time, Kane was played in by Hojbjerg and his low shot was fumbled by the keeper, with the ball hammered out of play by a defender.  Just into added time, a right wing cross missed the man in the middle, but Sulemana came in in front of Doherty, but the ball was too far across him and although he threw himself at the ball, his header went well wide.

At the start of the second half, Tait made sure that he fell on Moura’s leg and damaged his ankle. Lucas was back up on his feet, but he was obviously in pain even  though he played on. Spurs needed to move the ball quicker and in more threatening positions, which is what happened when Ndombele played the ball in to Kane and got the return. He moved past two defenders, but a touch off one took the ball a little way ahead and the keeper dived at his feet to force his effort off target. Tanganga went down holding his ankle after another dodgy challenge and Rennes broke on the left, playing the ball into the near post, where Guirassy put the ball wide.

Moura had to make way and Emerson Royal replaced him and Harry Kane came off with Dane Scarlett coming on from the bench. Royal was taken out on the right side of the box and Bryan Gil too the free-kick but fired it in, but over the bar. Another free kick resulting from a foul on the same player saw Bryan deliver it into the box again, but straight into the keeper’s hands. Soulemana did get his head to a cross from Traore, but his effort over the bar showed he was more adept at fouling Emerson than finishing. Laborde got some space in the box on our right, but his shot flew over the bar when he should have worked Gollini.

Ndombele turned Traore inside out, not once, not twice but three times to show him up, but it was Bryan who put in a good cross to the near post with pace, as Dane Scarlett dived full length to get his head to it, but could not manage to get it on target. Hojbjerg did get his shot on target when Emerson surged forward and the ball popped up, but it was straight at the keeper. With twenty minutes left, Soulemana found space on the edge of the box and his low shot was pushed out by the diving Gollini to his left where Laborde was standing and slid the ball into an empty net. The goal was a little against the run of play as Spurs looked in control, but poor closing down gave Rennes the chance to shoot.

Spurs spread the ball wide to Doherty, who put in a decent ball and even though it didn’t find a white shirt, Tait’s touch took the ball into the corridor of uncertainty and Hojbjerg nipped in to nudge the ball past the keeper with the outside of his left foot to put Spurs level and silence the crowd, who had been roused by their goal.

Again, Spurs profited from some sloppy Rennes defending, but could have been behind again when Laborde took a chest down from Gualiassy, but despite his goal-scoring record of last season, he failed to hit the target.  Ridiculously, Bryan received a booking for nothing more than Tait did to Lucas, when Spurs didn’t even get a free-kick. As Rennes looked for a winner, Tanganga did well to dispossess Guiliassy in the box as he looked to turn the Tottenham defender and Doherty got a toe to a shot from the same player to divert it wide. Emerson was clattered in the air by Tait and the referee spoke to the new signing rather than the Rennes man, who had got away with a lot, as had many of his team-mates, with the referee being especially lenient with the home players.

A late cross from the right by Hojbjerg was headed wide at the far post by Rodon, as Spurs tried to work a free-kick and Dele took a long throw into the area, which Scarlett won in the air, but it was just too far away from Emerson to latch on to.

After it went to 2-2, the Rennes fans quietened down, with all their choreographed singing and clapping losing its momentum.  However, it was the lack of momentum in Tottenham’s play that allowed Rennes to have the ball and space without pressure from our players.  The lack of closing down allowed both Rennes goals one shot straight in and the other resulting from a shot being saved.  When we had the ball it was moved quicker in the second 45 minutes, causing Rennes more problems than we posed in the first half, but the creativity is not quite there yet.  Ndombele can provide it if he can get some consistency and Bryan is a talent who has to get a run of games and face up to the fact that he is going to get knocked about a bit.  With the defence changing from week to week now, it makes it difficult to establish a rapport between keeper and back four, but the return from injury of the established players might help resolve that.

Spurs should really be looking to put these games to bed early so that they are able to preserve some of the squad, but our away record in Europe is not the best and winning the home games might just be enough but to boost our quota points, we need to be winning most of our games to help in future seasons.

An adequate point from just about an adequate performance, as Rennes are not a top notch French side.

Patrick Brampton

 

MATCH NOTES

Harry Kane’s appearance in this match made him the club’s record holder for European matches, with this being his 65th.

 

 

OTHER RESULTS
GROUP A
HJK Helsinki  (FIN) 0 LASK  (AUS) 2
Maccabi Tel-Aviv  (ISR) 4 Alashkert  (ARM) 1
GROUP B
Flora Tallin  (EST) 0 KAA Gent  (BEL) 1
Anorthosis Famagusta  (CYP) 0 Partizan Belgrade  (SER) 2
GROUP C
Bodo/Glimt  (NOR) 3 Zorya Luhansk  (UKR) 1
AS Roma  (ITA) 5 CSKA Sofia  (BUL) 1
GROUP D
FK Jablonec  (CZE) 1 CFR Cluj  (ROM) 0
Randers FC  (DEN) 2 AZ Alkmaar  (HOL) 2
GROUP E
Maccabi Haifa  (ISR) 0 Feyenoord  (HOL) 0
Slavia Prague  (CZE) 3 1. FC Union Berlin  (GER) 1
GROUP F
Lincoln Red Imps  (GIB) 0 PAOK Salonika  (GRE) 2
Slovan Bratislava  (SVK) 1 FC Copenhagen  (DEN) 3
GROUP G
NS Mura  (SVN) 0 Vitesse Arnhem  (HOL) 2
GROUP H
FC Qarabag  (AZE) 0 FC Basel  (SWI) 0
Kairat  (KAZ) 0 Omonia Nicosia  (CYP) 0

Europa Conference League – Group G

Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points Goal difference
1 Vitesse Arnhem 1 1 0 0 0 2 3 +2
2 Rennes 1 0 1 0 2 2 1 0
3 Tottenham Hotspur 1 0 1 0 2 2 1 0
4 NS Mura 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 -2