Rennes will seek to recover from a disappointing defeat to Angers when they welcome Reims to the Roazhon Park in Ligue 1 on Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the visitors are also aiming to bounce back from their own 2-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain, where Lionel Messi made his first appearance in navy blue.
Match preview
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On the high of a three-game winning streak across all competitions, Rennes comfortably marched into the group stage of the Europa Conference League with a 5-1 aggregate success against Rosenborg, with both legs coming either side of their first victory of the league season over Nantes.
However, Bruno Genesio's side were brought crashing back down to earth against Angers just before the international break, as Sofiane Boufal capitalised on a horror error from Alfred Gomis before teenager Mohamed-Ali Cho put the tie to bed with two minutes remaining.
Having taken five points from a possible 12 in August, Les Rouge et Noir remain in the top half of the rankings as they sit in eighth position, but they were the only side in the top 10 to suffer defeat in gameweek four before the international break.
Furthermore, Rennes' schedule is about to become all the more demanding, as their Conference League group-stage campaign begins against Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday before a trip to Jorge Sampaoli's free-scoring Marseille next weekend.
On a more positive note, Rennes welcome Reims to the Roazhon Park having won five and drawn two of their last seven league encounters on home soil, and their upcoming visitors are struggling for inspiration in all areas of the field.
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Reims will go down in the history books as the first club that Lionel Messi faced in PSG colours, but it was another Parisiens attacker who stole the show at the Stade Auguste-Delaune as Les Rouges et Blancs' winless start to the campaign continued.
Two days before a proposed £197m move to Real Madrid fell through, Kylian Mbappe headed home the opener for PSG before tapping home at the 63rd minute to double his side's lead, and there was no way back for Reims as they suffered their first defeat of the Ligue 1 season.
While Predrag Rajkovic bringing his son onto the field in order to take a picture with Messi was a heart-warming touch, Oscar Garcia's team have had little else to smile about, as their record of three draws and one defeat from their opening four games leaves them in 17th spot at this very early stage.
Garnering three points from clashes with Nice, Montpellier HSC and Metz was not the worst way to start the 2021-22 season, but Reims are now winless in 12 Ligue 1 games and are running the risk of embarking on their worst-ever streak of such sort in the division, which currently stands at 15 from the 2012-13 campaign.
Rennes and Reims played out a pair of 2-2 draws during the 2020-21 season, but this week's hosts are unbeaten in their last six encounters with Les Rouges et Blancs, although Genesio has now tried and failed to beat Reims four times as a manager.
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Team News
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Rennes ultimately waved goodbye to Eduardo Camavinga on transfer deadline day, with the teenage sensation penning a six-year deal with Real Madrid, but he was struggling for starts during the first few weeks anyway.
Loic Bade received his marching orders for two bookable offences against Angers and will take his place on the naughty step for this game, while Jeremy Gelin's ACL rupture means that Warmed Omari should partner Nayef Aguerd in defence.
Jeremy Doku also remains sidelined with a hamstring problem, while new arrivals Gaetan Laborde and Lovro Majer will both be pushing for starts, with the former competing with Serhou Guirassy for the chance to lead the line.
Meanwhile, Reims lost 19-year-old attacker El Bilal Toure to an ankle injury in the 81st minute against PSG, and the teenager is now said to be facing up to two months on the sidelines alongside Arber Zeneli and Moussa Doumbia.
The absences of Fraser Hornby and Anastasios Donis have left Reims very short on the attacking front, so Alexis Flips or Hugo Ekitike may be called upon to lead the line.
Ghislain Konan found himself on the bench against PSG despite bagging an assist against Metz, and the left-back could be recalled here after Nathanael Mbuku lasted just 45 minutes of their gameweek four encounter.
Rennes possible starting lineup:
Gomis; Traore, Omari, Aguerd, Meling; Santamaria, Tait; Bourigeaud, Majer, Sulemana; Guirassy
Reims possible starting lineup:
Rajkovic; Abdelhamid, Faes, Gravillon; Foket, Munetsi, Lopy, Cassama, Konan; Flips, Kebbal
We say: Rennes 2-0 Reims
Rennes are likely to have one eye on their impending European battle with Tottenham, but Genesio will certainly stress the importance of an immediate response following their dampening loss to Angers.
Meanwhile, Reims are expected to be without a recognised striker for this encounter and just cannot seem to get over the line in Ligue 1, so we can only back the hosts to return to winning ways in convincing fashion.
Top tip
Ben Knapton
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Rennes win with a probability of 60.96%. A draw had a probability of 24.2% and a win for Reims had a probability of 14.84%.
The most likely scoreline for a Rennes win was 1-0 with a probability of 16.35%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (13.41%) and 2-1 (8.92%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.87%), while for a Reims win it was 0-1 (6.63%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 2.2% likelihood.
