PLAYER RATINGS | Rennes 1-2 Monaco: 10-man Monégasques go second with hard-fought win
AS Monaco had the opportunity to go second in the Ligue 1 standings this Saturday afternoon at Rennes’ Roazhon Park. Former Premier League players Mohammed Salisu, Denis Zakaria, Takumi Minamino and Folarin Balogun all started for Adi Hütter’s Monégasques. After a flurry of half-chances for Monaco, the clearest goal-scoring opportunity fell to the hosts when an unmarked Arthur Theate missed his header from a corner kick.
However, the visitors had the upper hand on proceedings, helped in that regard by Rennes’ struggles to build from the back, resulting in bloopers from their youthful centre-backs. Still, the Monaco strikers were far from having a field day. Aleksandr Golovin’s influence was as poor as Takumi Minamino’s whilst former Arsenal forward Folarin Balogun failed to make his mark on his game at first. The American saw a timid effort easily finding its way towards Mandand’s gloves. The first half ended with a wayward Vanderson shot that went wide.
The Principality side returned to the pitch with renewed ambitions and was rewarded for it. Both Enzo Le Fée and Warmed Omari failed to clear Ismail Jakobs’ cross from the left, allowing Balogun to find Vanderson whose deflected shot found its way home. Julien Stéphan rang the changes with Adrien Truffert and the struggling Arnaud Kalimuendo and Ludovic Blas making way for Mohamadou Nagida, Bertug Yildirim and Martin Terrier.
Although they deserved to lead, Monaco had trouble keeping hold of the proceedings. The game turned sour with the visitors resorting to tactical fouls aplenty – Salisu, Zakaria and Wilfried Singo all receiving bookings. Tempers flared to a point it was all but certain that the game wouldn’t end with all 22 players on the pitch. It was Vanderson who was
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