Rennes will face Arsenal at Roazhon Park, in Rennes, in the Europa League 1/8-Finals. Rennes against Arsenal is always the match with big interest, especially during this season. Review our thoughts on this match here below.
Rennes
Rennes is one of these teams that in Europe looks great, however, in National league, they are facing troubles during this season. Now they are standing at 10th place with 37 points after 26 games in Ligue 1. They lost 9 and have drawn 7 games. In last matches they look better, moreover, they form should go up as they reached the semi-final of Coupe de France and played draw with Marseille in last league game. Moreover, Rennes scored at least 2 goals in their last 3 matches in the Europa League. Home team is unbeaten at Roazhon Park for 12 games in a row. In addition, they have drawn only 3 of them and won 9 times.
Everything could be great, however, several of the main squad players are injured and will miss next match. J. Siebatcheu, J. Lea Siliki, and others will miss the match due to injuries. The most important player is Hatem Ben Arfa with great skills and experience.
In UEFA Europa League Stade Rennais on average scores 1.6 goals, pass with 79.0% accuracy and control 48.8% of the time in the matches. They collected 17 yellow cards. The French team is strong this season at attacking set pieces, creating chances through individual skill and creating scoring chances. They are very weak at protecting the lead. Very likely that at home team will try to play width, take long shots and attack down the right flank.
Arsenal
Arsenal now stands at 5th position in Premier League and they are fighting with Chelsea and Manchester United for the 4th place, as it will give them a ticket to CL next year. The last match was very tough and important, as it was London derby against Tottenham and finished it 1:1. The first match against Rennes Arsenal will play away, however, they are facing big problems while playing road games. Arsenal won only twice in last 10 matches in all competitions. In the last 6 matches, Arsenal lost undeserved and surprisingly only once to BATE.
Next match will miss important players like R. Holding, D. Welbeck and H. Bellerin due to injuries. Most important other players are fit and ready to fight in this very tough away game. We can predict that Arsenal will try to score as many goals as possible to avoid the problems of the previous tour.
Arsenal scores 1.9 goals, pass with 88.0% accuracy and control 62.2% of the time in Europa League matches. They collected 7 yellow and 1 red card. They are really good at finishing scoring chances, shooting from direct free kicks and attacking down the wings. However, they are showing weaknesses at aerial duels, avoiding individual errors and stopping opponents from creating chances. Very likely that the Gunners will play possessional football with short passes and shoot more often than the opponent.
H2H
These teams have never played with each other.
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