Rennes, which led 3-0 at half-time, won 3-2 at the expense of a Lyon team that was too weak in the first period, Friday January 26 at Groupama stadium, in the opening match of the 19th day of Ligue 1, continuing its recovery and sending OL back to its doubts despite its too late reaction.
The Rennais are in 9th place. They remain with a draw in Toulouse (0-0) and three victories in the league against Clermont, Nice and Olympique Lyonnais while still being in the race in the Coupe de France after eliminating Guingamp then Marseille.
OL remains stuck at the bottom of the ranking (16th, play-off) under the threat of Clermont (17th, two points) which hosts Strasbourg on Sunday. And with 16 points in 19 days, he reached his worst total in the elite at this stage of the championship.
A double from Martin Terrier, formerly of Lyon where he was in failure, and a goal from Désiré Doué gave their team a comfortable lead.
Terrier opened the scoring with a powerful shot under the bar (22nd minute) and scored the third goal following a corner (41st) after Doué got past the Lyon defense and Dejan Lovren (36th). The Rennais then crossed the entire field, taking advantage of the passivity of the Rhone residents.
Before this match, Rennes had only scored five away goals this season in Ligue 1.
A year that starts off badly for Lyon
Although they are still qualified for the Coupe de France, OL got off to a bad start to the year in the league with two defeats in two days at Le Havre and against Rennes.
While waiting for the experienced Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matic, a former Rennes player, the transfer window has not progressed sufficiently. The last days of the market will be decisive in strengthening a workforce that remains weak, despite everything.
The two young players recruited, Malick Fofana (17 million euros) and Gift Orban (13 million euros) at Gantoise, in the Belgian championship, still have a lot of work, despite the price of their acquisition, to bring the expected added value at a really low workforce.
The choice of Pierre Sage, with a 5-3-2 starting eleven, was not conclusive, but he could cite the little room for maneuver he has.
He also tried to correct and restore momentum to his team by making three changes at half-time to switch to 3-4-3 with the entries of Orban in place of Mahamadou Diawara, Ernest Nuamah, returned of the CAN, to the detriment of Rayan Cherki, Henrique who succeeded Fofana as left piston and who reduced the gap by taking a cross delivered from the right by Ainsley Maitland-Niles (3-1, 57th).
The second half was therefore to the advantage of the Lyonnais who stifled their opponents who were completely dominant before half-time and who seemed set to inflict a correction on OL.
But Rennes was able to resist until the end despite a second goal scored by Alexandre Lacazette at the end of the game (78th). Lyon will try to react on February 4 with the reception of Marseille.
