Rennes vs Celtic – 19/09/2019 Preview

Rennes vs Celtic should be one of the most exciting games of UEFA Europa League, which will be held at Roazhon Park, in Rennes. This meeting should be decisive, which team will take the second position in Group E since Lazio is the main favourite to take 1st. Read our thoughts about this interesting Rennes vs Celtic UEFA Europa League match, here below.

In official matches, these teams met in the 2011 year also during the UEFA Europa League group stage. At that moment, Celtic confidently won at home, however, played a draw at Roazhon Park. After, these teams met only playing friendly games, were Celtic won in the 2015 year and drawn the game this summer, during the preparation period.

Rennes

Rennes took only 10th place last season in French Ligue 1. However, they took a win over the Paris SG in Coupe de France Final. The team was promoted to Europa League because of this. Already at the beginning of the season, they met again and this time PSG took a victory even being behind after Honou goal at 13th minute. After 5 rounds Rennes showing very confident and strong football, and they took revenge over PSG during the second round of Ligue 1 and won with the same 2:1 result, being behind after Cavani goal at 36th minute. It is very interesting to watch, how these teams are competing in recent times. Les Rennais standing at 2nd place after 5 rounds with 10 points. They lost points against Nice, being forward thanks to late R. Coly goal and played draw with Brest.

Julien Stéphan made a big work and took this team to a higher level in France. He made several strong signings this summer, like Raphinha from Sporting CP for 21m €, M’Baye Niang from Torino for 15m €,  Flavien Tait from SCO Angers for 9m € and some others. All these players come to attacking positions, so this area should be very interesting during this season especially. The biggest departure was Ismaila Sarr to Watford for 30m €. In general, they spent the same amount as they earned.

Unfortunately, Metehan Guclu and Gerzino Nyamsi will miss this important game due to injuries.

Celtic

Last season Celtic failed playing against Valencia in 1/16 Finals in UEFA Europa League. They lost both matches, at home and away, got a red card in the second match and didn’t scored any goal. They still need to work on their game to play against such rivals on an equal level. This season started for them already at the beginning of July. They needed to pass qualification of Champions League to be among teams in the group stage. They overtook FK Sarajevo, then Kalju and failed playing against CFR Cluj in Semi-final. The Bhoys played the confident game away, finishing with a 1:1 draw, what was a good advantage before the upcoming game in Glasgow. However,  the match at home was not what they expected and the Romanians scored 4 goals in an open game, taking a very important victory. The Celts scored 3, and even home ground and active fans don’t help them reach the Final.

Being Semi-finalists of CL, after lost, they were promoted to Europa League Final game in qualification and took a very strong win over Swedish AIK with 6:1 aggregate result. In domestic football, they are unbeated since the very first match. In Scotland Premiership, they have 5 in a row wins and continuing to dominate in this league. They play strongly in the attack. However, have troubles playing in defence, as they conceded in 3 out of 5 last games. The game against the French will show the true level of the team. In Scotland, the competition is weaker, and they naturally playing better.

The Hoops sold one of the strongest and talented players Kieran Tierney to Arsenal for 27m €. Unfortunately, several main squad players will miss the match against Rennes. Nir Bitton, Jozo Simunovic, Mikey Johnston, Marian Shved and Luca Connell will miss due to injuries.

Article image is taken from https://www.goal.com