A whole lot of premieres

Antonetti rants anyway:

One could consider a manager has to be happy after such a convincing victory, but this would be underestimating Antonetti’s ranting ability. While congratulating his players, which he considered “serious, efficient and clinical”, continued hammering the point he first made on Friday during the press conference, regarding the calendar offered to Ligue 1 teams.

«This competition, with this calendar, is cannon fodder for us, managers, Antonetti affirmed, in words reported by L’Équipe’s website. I will probably be the only one to say it after a 7-0 victory, but playing a Coupe de France game on the first week-end of January penalises the first division clubs. After the break, we have a week to prepare that game and the rest of our season in the same time. The others have got all the holiday season to prepare. This game should be played fifteen days later”.

An avalanche of premieres :

This game against Cannes was the occasion for several players to experience a few « premieres ».

Indeed, three players had never scored a professional goal with Rennes’ shirt and did it this Sunday: Abdoul Camara, Yann M’Vila (for his first ever professional goal) and Alexander Tettey for a brace. It was also the first double with Rennes for Victor Hugo Montaño, while Yacine Brahimi scored his first goal at the Route de Lorient.

In terms of passing, besides Boukari (read below), this game marked the first assists for Brahimi (to Tettey), Camara (to Brahimi) and Kana-Biyik (to Montaño) with the “Rouge et Noir”.

More anecdotal, a player trained at the club discovered the Coupe de France yesterday, in Kévin Théophile-Catherine. The player who had been offered his professional debuts in the Coupe de la Ligue, launched by Guy Lacombe against Le Mans in September 2008, had never played in this competition before.

Stade Rennes, One of ten survivors :

Hecatomb. This may be the best adapted word to qualify this Round of 64 of the Coupe de France. Ten Ligue 1 clubs bid farewell to the competition on their very first game, including the reigning France champion Marseille.

Therefore, only half of the top flight representatives remain in the race to the tile, against 22 contenders from lower divisions. Leaving aside Vaulx-en-Velin and Jura Sud, which will have to fight for the last place in the round of 32, there are ten Ligue 2 clubs remaining, two from the National, six from the CFA and three from CFA2

Disappointing attendance :

For this game, the Stade de la route de Lorient looked very empty. It has to be admitted that many factors were combined to prevent a good attendance. Low prestige opposition, time of the game, air temperature, the quality of football shown so far this season.

Eventually, 6031 spectators sat in the Stadium’s lower tiers, as the higher tiers remained closed to public sale. No need to look back a long way to find a lower attendance, as only 5,724 persons turned up for the Round of 64 game between Rennes and Caen last season. However, this Sunday was the second worst attendance at the Stade de la Route de Lorient since its renovation in 2004.

Émon fatalistic :

The AS Cannes manager Albert Émon, who admitted even before the game that his team and Stade Rennes “are not playing in the same category” probably didn’t think he was that right.

Questioned after the game, the former Marseille man expressed his disappointment. “seven to nil, this is a rout, Émon recognized. we came on the pitch for a walk, they came to run. We took a lesson of football, of simplicity and of collective football. We were punished and we deserve it. It’s the first time I experience something like that in forty years of career”.

Goals scored during the play :

It’s rare enough to be underlined, all of the seven goals scored by Rennes this Sunday were scored in the play. Unusual for a team which had not scored this way since November 20th, and Jérôme Leroy’s goal against Brest.

So far this season, only thirteen goals (out of nineteen) were scored in the play. The proportion has increased significantly with yesterday’s game. Among the six goals scored on dead ball assists, there are two penalties, one indirect free-kick and three corner-kicks.

The next opposition revealed on Saturday :

Immediately following the game, the draw for the round of 32 was rather kind with the Stade Rennais. Vaulx-en-Velin (a Division d’honneur club in Lyon’s suburb) and Jura Sud (a CFA club playing at Moirans-en-Montagne, about twenty kilometres away from Oyonnax), will face each-other to try and win the right to host Stade Rennes.

Their round of 64 game was postponed on Friday, because of the installation in Vaulx-en-Velin’s stadium of removable stands non-homologated by the FFF. Since the Furiani tragedy in 1992, in which a removable stand had collapsed resulting in several death, caution is always required before the installation of such equipment. By the time these stands are removed, the game will be played next Saturday.

Successful beginnings for Boukari:

He could only have managed a better start by scoring a goal… Razak Boukari gave total satisfaction for his first match with Stade Rennes though, giving no less than three assists. Truly inspired in the first half, and also using very wide gaps on the right wing to his advantage, he was accessory in Tettey’s goal before delivering two victorious crosses to Montaño and M’Vila for the second and fourth goals of the game.

Repositioned as a centre forward after Montaño came out, the former Lens man showed less efficient, but still managed to feed a deep ball to Camara for the sixth goal. A very promising first outing for him.

- Photo : srfc.frenchwill.fr