Brahimi and Tettey are walking on cloud nine

- The class of Rennes :

Saturday, before the game, Frédéric Antonetti had an elegant gesture when inviting Mustapha Hassaïne and Mathias Galdeano, the coach and president of FC Vaulx-en-Velin, to have a coffee at the hotel where the Rennes players were staying. An initiative appreciated by Hassaïne, speaking to Ouest-France. « It’s very nice of him, the Vaulx manager commented. I’ve always liked Frédéric Antonetti, I am very pleased to have some time to chat with him. We won’t discuss our strategies, obviously, but we will have the chance to talk about something else than football”.

- Rennes’ defence is a wall :

Extremely solid at the beginning of the season (two goals conceded in the first 6 matches), Rennes’ defence has found an even more impressive rhythm since the beginning of December. Since the game in Marseille (included), Rennes has played eight games and conceded only a single goal, scored by Romain Hamouma during the game in Caen (0-1).

- Mandjeck injured :

Included in the starting XI for the first time since the game in Marseille, Georges Mandjeck hasn’t been particularly impressive at midfield. The Cameroonese also had the misfortune of coming off injured one hour in the game. According to a communiqué from the club, Mandjeck suffers with a dead leg after being kneed on the left thigh, which prevented him from finishing the game. Jérôme Leroy replaced him at midfield for the final twenty minutes.

-  Dréossi wanted the game postponed, Antonetti hits at the FFF:

A bad surprise for the Rennes when they arrived at the Stade de Balmont: the state of the pitch. The ambient cold had significantly frozen an already poor pitch, making the game of football a real difficult mission. “This is a real Cup pitch”, Romain Danzé commented before the game.

For the Rennes management, the tendency was rather to worry, or even anger. The Rennes general manager, Pierre Dréossi, reportedly requested for the game to be postponed, without success. After the game, Frédéric Antonetti agreed with his manager, hitting at the French Football Federation, in charge of organising the competition. “the pitch was unplayable: frozen, not taken care of, therefore dangerous for the players, the Rennes manager affirmed to L’ Équipe after the game. The people in charge (ed.:at the F.F.F)would be well inspired to have look at safety issues on the pitches. They should rethink it carefully, as they are about to kill the Coupe de France. The professionals will give it less and less interest and focu on the League only, it’s a shame”.
Not to forget however, that the amateurs are playing on such fields every week, and that playing only on L1 or L2 pitches «from the Round of 64” as the Corsican manager would like to see, would also kill the specialness of the Coupe de France.

- A flying start to 2011 for Brahimi and Tettey:

Everyone would have noticed it, Yacine Brahimi and Alexander Tettey have started the year 2011 in the best of ways. Both men have considerably improved their attacking statistics in the last three matches, scoring four goals each.
Also, Tettey has scored the first goal in each of these three games, for a total of four goals in six matches this season. Recouping this with the number of minutes played by the Norwegian, he has scored a goal every 100 minutes, a performance many strikers would like to achieve.
As for Brahimi, he has also distinguished himself with his assists, two of them, one against Cannes and the second against Vaulx-en-Velin. These two assists were delivered to …Alexander Tettey, who returned the favour to the French-Algerian against Arles-Avignon.
Finally, Brahimi has profited of his current success to install himself in second position in the Rennes goal scoring record, all competitions included, just one goal behind Victor Hugo Montaño (6 goals for the Colombian, 5 for Brahimi).

-  The class of Rennes (part 2) :

Naturally disappointed by the result, the FC Vaulx-en-Velin should keep a good memory from Stade Rennes’ trip to Lyon however. At the end of the game, all the Rennes players have offered their shirt to their opponents, after offering them a guard of honour on the way to the dressing room. Finally, a very significant gesture for the finances of a little club like Vaulx-en-Velin, Stade Rennes has integrally offered its share of the game’s gate receipts to their hosts.
In Vaulx, this gesture was deeply appreciated and the club’s management even wishes that Stade Rennes will go all the way to win the competition.

- Would Carrasso have done as well as Douchez :

After the game, when doing a summary of players that showed decisive for Stade Rennes’ qualification, Nicolas Douchez is in good position. The Rennes keeper impressed by stopping Vaulx-en-Velin from equalising with two fine saves.
The DH team were clearly regretting those mised chances, even thinking that the outcome could have been different with Johann Carrasso between the posts, as he was against Cannes. “They started with Douchez in the goal, I thought they would play Carasso”, Mathias Galdeano explained after the game, before imagining with a laugh that with the former France U21 goalkeeper, “it would have gone in…”. Carrasso will be pleased.

- M’Vila, first assist :

A goal scorer for the first time in his professional career against Cannes, a goal scorer for the first time in L1 against Arles-Avignon, Yann M’Vila is pimping his attacking stats. Since the beginning of the season, the midfielder keeps on repeating that he needs to bring more towards the attack. He reached another step this Sunday.
Indeed, his deep delivery on Brahimi’s goal is simply the first assist delivered by the French international since he played his first professional game with Rennes.

- Anticipated return for Doumbia:

An indirect consequence of Rennes’ qualification, it is now clear which games Tongo Doumbia will be banned for. This Sunday, the midfielder served the second of his four games (Ed.: the ban was active after the game against Cannes, in which Doumbia couldn’t take part because of an injury). He will be absent again against Sochaux next week-end, and a last time for the Round of 16 game against Reims.
Doumbia should therefore be available for the reception