Stade Rennais leaped above Angers SCO in the Ligue 1 table thanks to a late own goal that sealed the slender victory for Rolland Courbis' side.
It was a game of firing blanks for both teams, having barely hit the target for the entirety of the match. Fortunately for the hosts, Paul-Georges Ntep's corner, knocked on by Pedro Mendes, took a big deflection off Arnold Bouka Moutou to find the net. The goal came a matter of seconds before the referee blew his whistle for full time.
The starting 11 for Les Rouges et Noirs featured the surprise selection of youngster Sebastien Salles Lamonge. More good news for the Bretons was the return of club icon, Yoann Gourcuff to the fold as he found a place on the bench. Angers were not in great shape themselves and were forced to made two attacking changes midway through the match, with both strikers being brought off.
Late chances and big saves
From kick off there seemed to be an element of intent from the visitors. Only one minute had been played before Gilles Sunu diverted a header from close range over the bar. The striker had his head in his hands after passing up a guilt-edged opportunity which was arguably harder to miss.
Both teams passed up headed chances in quick succession. Ismael Traore and Benjamin Andre both forced strong saves from Benoit Costil and Denis Petric respectively. However, both opportunities were taken following the raised offside flag, but nothing can be taken away from the two 'keepers' heroics.
On the cusp of half time Rennes thought they had taken the lead. Off-form striker Giovanni Sio thought he had broke his bad run without scoring only to see the referee chop off his scoring header. The Ivorian headed the ball in the net following a free kick, but off the ball Cheikh M'Bengue had fouled Petric on the line.
Petric to the rescue? Or so it seemed
Only two minutes from the restart and the first chance of the half manufactured itself. Sylvain Armand's familiar long pass into the path of Ousmane Dembele deep inside the box was inch perfect. Unfortunately, the young attacker missed the connection with the following shot.
Dembele tried to redeem himself for his missed effort and was almost rewarded with a goal but was unfortunate to find the post. Coming in from the right, the winger opened his foot on the ball to then hit the bottom of the far left post.
Within a minute Angers passed up excellent chances, both of a similar nature. Firstly, Charles Diers smashed a shot across goal which only needed a vital scoring touch which couldn't be found. Immediately after, Said Benrahma had his own strike across the face which narrowly avoid the target.
Two excellent late stops from Petric from Kamil Grosicki and Romain Danze's efforts were seen as point savers at the time. However, the keeper could do nothing as Rennes notched the winning goal late on. Ntep's corner, with the aid of Bouka Moutou, found its way by the motionless Petric and into the net.
After full time, Anger's Vincent Manceau said: "We were very hard this evening. We fought hard to keep a clean sheet, it was very hard to concede an own goal. We were very solid tonight, we're not going to be down on ourselves tonight."
The win for Rennes keeps them well in the mix for the vital European spot as well as leapfrogging Angers momentarily to 5th place in Ligue 1. Next week Rolland Courbis' men travel to Caen to get another win that will set aside another European challenger, while Angers host Montpellier.