Monaco misery continues against Rennes

 AS Monaco 1-2 Stade Rennais FC 

THE MATCH

Rennes took the lead inside the first 15 minutes at the Stade Louis II when da Silva got in front of Andrea Raggi to meet Ben Arfa’s corner (14′) and the Bretons then sought to defend their advantage. The tactic nearly backfired towards the end of the half when Benjamin Henrichs crossed for Moussa Sylla, but the teenager failed to find the target with his header (37′). The pendulum then swung further in Rennes’ favour in first-half injury time, with Raggi sent off after lashing out at Clément Grenier (45+1′).

WATCH:  AS Monaco 1-2 Stade Rennais FC

Monaco nonetheless got back on level terms with the first attack of the second half. Sylla sent Golovin off on a run down the wing, the Russia winger then played in Falcao and the Colombian club captain’s early finish left Abdoulaye Diallo with no chance (48′). Caen then had a pair of good chances: Grenier curled in a free-kick which was well saved by Danijel Subasic (62′) and then Ben Arfa used a bit of trickery to cut inside before failing to find the finish to do his bit of flair justice (68′). Ben Arfa simply refused to be denied, though, and got what proved to be the winning goal soon after, finding space on the edge of the box and then letting fly with an unstoppable shot (77′).

THE PLAYER: Hatem Ben Arfa

Ben Arfa did not travel for Rennes’ 2-0 loss to Astana in the UEFA Europe League on Thursday, but they might have come back from Kazakhstan with at least a share of the points had the mercurial midfielder been among them. Ben Arfa has spent two years on the bench or worse in Paris, but at 31 there is still time for him to light up most matches, as he did here.

THE STAT: 23

Rennes have now scored in each of their last 23 games in Ligue 1 Conforama – their best ever run in the French top flight. The last time Les Rouges et Noirs failed to find the target in the league was back in February, when they were edged 1-0 by EA Guingamp.

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