As usual...

It seemed serious… Frédéric Antonetti had refused to sacrifice this competition – as Ligue 1 managers often do – by calling a Reserve team for this game. In the Sarthe, the Rennes manager had indeed left a few key players to rest, but he had put together a mixed team nonetheless, with half of it regularly starting in Ligue 1.
Abdoulaye Diallo had replaced Costil in the goals, Danzé, given captainship in the absence of Kader Mangane, started alongside Kana-Biyik, Mandjeck and Mavinga in defence. The midfield was composed of Tettey, Pajot and Dalmat whileYoussouf Hadji, starting at Centre forward, was supported by Victor Hugo Montaño and Razak Boukari on the wings.

The game started slowly, and the teams observed each other without taking any risks. In the first minutes, Rennes took control of the ball possession and Le Mans pressed well at midfield, disturbing the passing of the “Rouge et Noir”. Playing mainly on counter-attacks, Le Mans created the first chance of the game, but Adenon miscued his volley completely (17’).
This first alert appeared as a wake-up call for Rennes and Stéphane Dalmat who launched Boukari behind the defence, but the Togolese pushed his ball too far in front of Ovono (20’). A minute later, it was Dalmat once again who served Mavinga on the left wing. The former Liverpool defender curled a perfect cross towards Montaño, but the Colombian striker’s header bounced off the crossbar and clear from the Le Mans goal (21’).
Despite this massive chance, Rennes slowed its game once again, and the match returned to a dull, sleepy rhythm made of imprecise passing and lack of execution speed. The teams came in for the break without Diallo or Ovono being put to contribution again.

A few minutes after half-time, it was Dalmat who led the charge. His free-kick was perfectly taken and Youssouf Hadji headed in direction of the goal, but Ovono managed a superb save from his fingertips to protect his goal (49’).
Rennes played inconstant football, and after Diarra headed wide for Le Mans (57’), the Bretons took back their control of the ball on a long attacking sequence, but neither Tettey, nor Dalmat or Hadji could find a breach in the defence. Shortly after the hour mark, new entrant Pitroipa beat the offside trap and eliminated the Le Mans defence to feed a brilliant back-pass for Hadji. The Moroccan saw his placed shot deflected on the crossbar by a superb save from Ovono, before his header crashed on the right post of the Le Mans goal (64’).

Hadji, twice, tried his luck again with headers (65’, 68’) but Ovono was solid in his goals. Fatigue was settling in, and with wide gaps opening, Le Mans became increasingly threatening on counter-attacks. Jeff Louis’ effort was wide, a few minutes before Mamadou Doumbia missed the goal too, on a header just metres away from the goal.
Both teams were desperately trying to force the decision and on yet another counter-attack, Frédéric Thomas was mightily close to winning it for Le Mans on a well-rounded movement. Launched behind the Rennes defence, he presented himself alone against Abdoulaye Diallo but couldn’t hit the target (83’). Pitroipa (87’) and Thomas (89’) tried their luck from range once again, but there would be no score, and the referee blew his whistle for the end of 90 minutes on a blank score-line.

The rhythm was getting even lower during extra-time, and only a goal by Hadji – refused for an obvious offside position by the Moroccan forward – and a few set pieces poorly exploited by Le Mans came to warm-up the 12,000 spectators present at the MMArena. The penalty-shootouts seemed unavoidable although on a poorly played counter-attack, Momi gave a final fright to the Rennes supporters (119’), but Philippe Kalt was indeed signalling the end of extra-time, still on a 0-0 score line.

Le Mans was first to shoot, and skipper Frédéric Thomas gave his team an early lead before Didier Ovono, superb throughout the game, deflected Youssouf HAdji’s attempt. Momi, Féret and Narry were next to score before Ovono, once again, stood well to stop Pitroipa’s sloppy attempt at the centre of the goal.
Strömstad didn’t think twice and put the night to an end : the Norwegian international blasted the ball past Abdoulaye Diallo and sent Le Mans in the quarter-final. For Antonetti’s men, the short trip back to the Breton capital would have a well-known flavour in Rennes, this of yet another disillusion…

Match Facts

LE MANS FC 0 - 0 STADE RENNAIS FC A.E.T. (4-1 pen.)

Coupe de la Ligue, Round of 16
Wednesday, October 26th 2011, 20:50

MMArena
Attendance : 11 283 spectators

Referee : Philippe Kalt

Penalties : Thomas (scored, 1-0) ; Hadji (stopped by Ovono, 1-0) ; Momi (scored, 2-0) ; Féret (scored, 2-1) ; Narry (scored, 3-1) ; Pitroipa (stopped by Ovono, 3-1) ; Strömstad (scored, 4-1)

- Stade rennais FC : Diallo – Danzé (cap), Kana-Biyik, Mandjeck, Mavinga - Pajot, Tettey, Dalmat (Brahimi, 67’, then Féret, 78’) - Boukari, Montaño (Pitroipa, 61’), Hadji.

Manager : Frédéric Antonetti.

- Le Mans FC : Ovono – Bamba, Doumbia, Cuffault, Adenon – Thomas (cap), Narry, Louis (Cissé, 74’), Diarra (Momi, 61’) - Belfort, Ekeng (Strömstad, 94’)

Manager: Arnaud Cormier.