“We have to learn faster,” says Stéphan after the Rennes defeat

2023-12-14 23:34:26

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published now, Updated now

Julien Stéphan. DAMIEN MEYER / AFP

Beaten this Thursday by Villarreal at the end of the suspense, Stade Rennais will have to go through the Europa League play-offs.

After having believed to obtain the equalizer at 3-3 against Villarreal and the qualification for the round of 16 of the Europa League, the goal refused by the VAR is a “emotional elevator” which deprives Rennes of a “click”lamented coach Julien Stephan on Thursday.

Dominated by more experienced Spaniards, Rennes thought they had snatched their ticket to the eighth place when Lorenz Assignon scored in the seventh minute of added time. But the VAR reminded the referee, who had validated the goal, that at the start of the action, Enzo Le Fée had recovered a ball from a direct free kick that he had taken himself and which had hit the transversal, which is prohibited by the regulation.

“I also learned (this rule) at that time to be very honest”admitted Stephan after the match. “I knew it from a penalty but I didn’t think it could exist from a free kick”, he continued. Shortly after the goal was disallowed, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the match.

“It’s an emotional lift at that moment, because we say to ourselves ‘finally something clicks!’, finally something that comes to fruition, that rewards the generosity, the efforts, the self-sacrifice of all the players »regretted the coach again.

A “click” to find

Second place, which sends Rennes into the play-off in February, against one of the third places in the group stage of the Champions League, remains satisfactory, Stephan moderated. “When you have the winner of the Europa League (of 2021) in your group, you can’t talk about failure”he argued. “There were two matches against them, very, very closehe said. There was a penalty in the 90th minute there (0-1 defeat), which could have allowed us to get back to 1-1. Today, in the 98th minute, there was this action which could have allowed us to equalize. It’s nothing at all.”.

But this mainly came down to the persistent defensive fragility of the Bretons. “We have to learn more quickly, very, very quickly (…), especially in these matches against experienced opponents who do not require much to sanction”detailed Stephan.

“There is a lot of good will, a lot of energy, there is, I found, progress in certain sectors of the game, but we still concede three goals today”he also underlined. “The trigger will have to be sought while maintaining this state of mind but reducing the possibilities for the adversaries”he concluded.