2023-11-30 22:12:00
After its big victory in Budapest, Rennes ensured on Thursday that it would continue its European campaign in the Europa League at the end of next winter. Against Maccabi Haifa, the Bretons won 3 goals to 0. With this fourth success in five days, the Bretons have 12 points and, whatever the result of the match between Villarreal and Panathinaikos, they will finish at one of the two first places in group F. The Spaniards have 6 points with two games in hand, including the reception of Haifa on December 6, we will probably have to wait for Rennes-Villarreal on December 14 to know if the Rouge et Noir move directly into eighth final or if they will have to go through a play-off against one of the third places in the Champions League groups.
In any case, they did the job seriously, in the Puskas Arena behind closed doors. For his second match on the bench since his return, Julien Stéphan had reshuffled his starting lineup compared to the Ligue 1 match on Sunday against Reims (3-1). He thus placed his trust in central defender Warmed Omari, suspended in the championship and author of some costly blunders since the start of the season. Benjamin Bourigeaud and Arnaud Kalimuendo had been left on the bench in favor of Lorenz Assignon on the right and Bertrug Yildirim up front.
The break from the start of the second half
But faced with very weak Israelis, forced to play far from home and in a context that was undoubtedly very psychologically complicated, Rennes mastered the match. Already 3-0 winners in the first leg, Rennes quickly confiscated the ball and although it took more than 25 minutes to see a truly dangerous opportunity, the Bretons almost hit the mark on their first opportunity.
It was Martin Terrier, who had not scored for eleven months and his terrible knee injury, who found the fault after a magnificent one-two with Enzo Le Fée, scoring with a powerful strike in the area and first post (1-0, 29th). The break came just after returning from the locker room. A hazardous back pass from a Maccabi midfielder was intercepted by Amine Gouiri who fixed his defender well and doubled the lead with a cross strike (2-0, 47th).
The new Algerian international (4 caps) again found the opponent’s goal with a strike at the edge of the area, ten minutes later, but it was necessary to wait for added time for the Swiss Fabian Rieder to increase the score further. (3-0, 90+3). Faced with the lack of opposing responders, Stéphan had already been able to rotate widely before that to prepare for a crucial meeting in the championship, Sunday, in Marseille (8:45 p.m.).
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