- Oct 17, 2006
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Official Site Match Centre
TEAM FORM: - Rennes - WWWLL ---- Spurs LWWWL ----- (All Competitions)
We will both aim to bounce back from demoralising league defeats at the weekend when we do battle in Europa Conference League Group G later today. Les Rouge et Noir suffered a 2-0 home loss to Reims last time out, whereas our perfect start to the season ended with a 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.
The Bruno Genesio revolution at Rennes has lost quite a bit of momentum in recent weeks, with Les Rouge et Noir now suffering back-to-back 2-0 defeats to Angers and Reims during an underwhelming start to the new Ligue 1 season
With off-the-pitch endeavours relating to our South American contingent bedevilling us, we sought to maintain our perfect start to the season against Crystal Palace, whose new boss Patrick Vieira needed no added incentive to get one over us again.
Our defensive resilience came to the fore in victories over Manchester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Watford, but after Tanganga saw red, Zaha struck the opener from the penalty spot before Edourad’s 10-minute debut saw him bag a brace in a humbling day for us.
Nuno’s perfect start to life in the Premier League with us was not going to last forever, and the Portuguese has already suffered one European defeat with us against Pacos de Ferreira, but we ran out convincing 3-0 winners in the second leg after a 1-0 first-leg defeat to make the Conference League group stages.
After spending four consecutive seasons in the Champions League from 2016-17 to 2019-20, being knocked out of last season's Europa League to Dinamo Zagreb in the last 16 represented quite the downturn for us, where we the supporters may not be all that thrilled about the prospect of third-tier European football this term.
Thursday's game will mark the first-ever meeting between Rennes and us in any competition, but the French side have already faced two London clubs in Chelsea and Arsenal in previous European tournaments, recording one win and three losses in the process.
Team News
Rennes attacker Martin Terrier was forced off after 27 minutes against Reims with a suspected thigh problem and is not expected to be available here, with fellow winger Jeremy Doku also out with a hamstring problem.
Kamaldeen Sulemana should earn an immediate recall to the left-hand side in Terrier's absence, while Loic Bade returns from a domestic suspension and should displace Warmed Omari in the hosts' rearguard.
Genesio also lost Alfred Gomis (quarantine), Birger Meling (adductor) and Lovro Majer (hip) before the defeat to Reims, and it would be a surprise to see any member of the trio line up on Thursday.
We remain without Sanchez, Romero and Lo Celso due to quarantine regulations, while Tanganga's sending off at Selhurst Park means nothing for European encounters.
Son, Sessegnon and Bergwijn are unlikely to make their returns from injury just yet either, while Eric Dier is also expected to miss out after going off injured against Palace.
Nuno ought to put out a relatively strong team given the calibre of opponent, but there could be opportunities for Gil, Gollini and maybe Ndombele to impress.
Head to Head
As mentioned earlier, we have never played each other in any competitive games.
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