OM defeats Stade Rennais and goes to the round of 16

After defeating Hyères ten days ago, Olympique de Marseille hosted Stade Rennais in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France. Igor Tudor’s men, in a good dynamic in the league, wanted to extend this confidence in the cup against a Breton team also with a bang, especially after beating Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 less than a week earlier. For this clash, the Croatian technician lined up winter rookie Ruslan Malinovskyi for the second time since his arrival, and the usual midfielder Valentin Rongier-Jordan Veretout. On the side of the Rouge-et-Noir, Bruno Genesio trusted the youth, with Lesley Ugochukwu as a sentinel in the midfield and Désiré Doué on the left of his attack. Quickly in this meeting, the Olympians put pressure on their evening opponent in the last third, worrying the last rampart Alemdar through Alexis Sanchez, who missed his recovery with the tip of the right foot after a bad recovery from Lovro Majer ( 2nd). Behind, Malinovskyi found the left post of the Turk on a free kick not far from perfection (9th). The Chilean striker even thought to open the scoring with a nice lob but the referee whistled for an offside position (11th), before sending a header into the gloves of the Rennes goalkeeper (17th). In the process, Nuno Tavares saw his volley graze the Rennes right wood to confirm Marseille’s ascendancy in this part (18th).

Despite an interesting cross from Adrien Truffert just before the break, but cleared by the defence, Stade Rennais returned to their locker room after being manhandled by an offensive and determined OM team. In the second half, the Phocaeans showed the same intentions as in the first act, quickly putting pressure on the Breton defense. Nevertheless, Bruno Genesio’s men revealed themselves a little more offensively and woke up when they returned from the corridors of the Vélodrome. They even framed their first shot of the meeting thanks to Benjamin Bourigeaud, even if his volley was quietly captured by Pau Lopez, who had not been worried until then. The domination of the first 45 minutes materialized a few seconds before the hour mark: indeed, after a phase of possession of Rennes, OM went on the counterattack in the opposing half of the field through Veretout, who found Matteo perfectly Guendouzi at the far post. The French international took the ball inside the foot and crucified Alemdar, deceived by the shot deflected by Ugochukwu in the zone of truth (1-0, 59th). Being forced to attack more often to get the penalty shootout, the SRFC pushed back the Marseille block, which had the possibility of reacting in counter-attack, as for the opener. Well grouped in front of their surface, the men in white held on at the end of the meeting and won the executioner of the capital club in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France. Rennes will therefore focus on the championship and the Europa League for the rest of the season.

To read
OM-Rennes: Genesio reveals what Longoria told him