The points were shared equally today as Rennes and Lorient draw 1-1 in the Breton Derby at the Route de Lorient.
Rennes, who came off a boring 0-0 draw away to St Etienne last Friday wanted to give the team an extra boost going into next week's Coupe de France final, whilst Lorient were already in decent spirits having come down from being 4-1 down to Montpellier and getting the game back all square thanks to a few late goals.
Although this version of the Breton derby doesn't reach the heights of intensity that the other Breton Derby between Rennes and Nantes does, it was a derby all the same and both teams did not want to lose it.
Rennes had a couple of injuries in defence to contend with which put midfielder, Vincent Pajot at right-back, as captain Romain Danze was injured plus Steven Moreira had to fill in at left-back as Cheikh Mbengue had to be replaced again St Etienne due to injury.
To his dismay, Lorient dropped the hero from the Montpelier game, Vincent Aboubakar as manager Christian Gourcouff opted to have former Arsenal and Celtic striker, Jeremie Aliadière, Kevin Monnet-Paquet and Alain Traoré leading the attacking line.
Rennes wore their usual home shirt of red and black whilst Lorient opted for their change kit of all white. Rennes attacked from left to right towards the Lorient fans who had prepared a tifo pre-match to spur their team on.
Lorient started off the brightest, keeping possession in the early minutes of the match. The first chance of a goal came when a cross by Kevin Monnet-Paquet deflected off Rennes centre-back John Boye, forcing Benoit Costil to make a great reaction save.
Rennes were getting frustrated by the possession play by Lorient and the fans were consistently on their backs jeering every move that went back towards the defence. The players seemed to take note of this and the first bright spell by Les Rouges et Noirs came through Polish winger, Kamil Grosicki who took on the Lorient defence with some decent dribbling skills but the tap through to Abdoulaye Doucouré was played whilst in an offside position.
Lorient retained possession and began to get back into their rhythm, keeping the ball and trying their luck down the side of Vincent Pajot and were getting joy with it- earning a corner which resulted in another great reaction save by Costil.
Rennes earned a costlesskick thirty yards from goal and having scored from a similar position earlier in the season, there was an element of danger to this one even though it was far out. To the fortune of Lorient, the costlesskick hit the wall which prompted a counter-attack which broke down and then returned with a counter attack by Rennes. The game started to become more even with Lorient winning in the possession statistics by two percent.
Abdoulaye Doucouré, who had been Rennes' main-man in attack was making himself available for the ball whenever his team had it. Doucoure took it upon himself to try and dribble past the Lorient defence which Grosicki had some success doing earlier in the game but unfortunately this time it was intercepted and another counter-attack lay foundation for a cross to be swung into the box for Alain Traore to header past a motionless Benoit Costil to put Lorient a goal ahead in the derby.
This was to be the toughest spell to endure for the Rennes back four as a powerful cross along the ground by Monnet-Paquet met the boot of Aliadiere but the direction on the shot meant that the ball missed the goal by inches. If the Rennes fans were irked before going behind then what they were feeling at this point would be definite enhancement and they made themselves heard once again.
Rennes responded like they did the last time the fans got on their backs which sprung Romain Alessandrini to be through one on one with goal with Lorient goalkeeper, Audard. With a hint of hand ball, Alessandrini's attempt on goal was feeble and was parried out of play for a corner kick.
Lorient hit back a few minutes later with Aliadiere all but through on goal with an offside call and a cross into the box which was just as close as Aliadiere's earlier chance along the ground. Once again though, Abdoulaye Doucouré was making edgeways in the Rennes attack. Rennes' striker, Ola Toivonen was rarely getting a sniff of the ball as he was being consistently marked by the two Lorient centre-backs, limiting the number of chances for Rennes. Alain Traore managed to find the net once more with a header but was quickly and correctly disallowed for offside.
Rennes were getting closer to a goal as the half went on. Lorient were caught at the back when Benoit Costil's goalkick managed to find Alessandrini out on the left side in costless space which he took full advantage of by drilling a low cross which was palmed away by Audard.
The second half started better for the home side with a possession in and around the Lorient penalty area. Lorient managed to win a costlesskick close to the corner flag which was swiftly dealt with by the defence, ultimately leading to Toivonen's first shot on goal, all in all a poor effort. Costil found luck once again from his goalkick by finding Alessandrini once more in the same move as they'd previously done, this time leading to a corner. The corner found its way out to Doucoure who had a shot from distance which was way off the mark.
A straight switch saw Grosicki come off for Ntep. Grosicki had been in-effective in the game apart from that one chance he created for himself. Lorient earned a better costlesskick this time as Traore went down lightly inside the penalty box, earning Sylvain Armand a booking for the original challenge and Jean Makoun a booking for his behaviour in the wall protecting the goal, but the referee seen it as outside of the box. The attempt was poor as a chipped attempt by Aliadiere hit Armand's head. Monnet-Paquet who had been Lorient's most influential player in the game made space for himself to cut the ball back into the box, however his pass was over-hit and strolled out the box to the dismay of the two attackers waiting on the ball.
Both teams switched their outlooks as the game went on, Lorient switched to a 4-4-2 bringing on the clinical Aboubakar whilst Rennes swapped defensive midfielder, Jean Makoun for attacking midfielder, Kadir. The changes seemed to work for Rennes in an attacking sense which saw three glorious chances pass them by, by a matter of inches including on for the 'ghost player', Toivonen. This new attacking wave had finally paid off as substitute, Ntep rose above the rest as a corner was hit into the box and the winger put his neck behind the powerful attempt, Rennes were now level.
The fans started to perk up and Rennes (Ntep in particular) started an onslaught on their Breton neighbours. Rennes earned a costlesskick but nothing came from it, the feeling was keeping Aboubakar quiet was the ultimate task with him hitting sixteen goals and six assists this season. As the game drew closer to the end, a debatable penalty claim for Rennes due to a handball shout was ruled to be the chest much to the fury of the Rennes faithful. Tiredness became a factor as late challenges were more frequent and both teams didn't want to do anything creative. A late corner from Lorient and a failed counter-attack by Rennes drew the game to a close.
Rennes now go onto the Coupe de France final next week against another Breton neighbour in Guingamp, who won their match against Valenciennes, whilst Lorient play relegation bound Ajaccio.