🏏 Sun, 6 Sep 2026 17:15 CEST
Angers SCO
vs
Stade Rennais FC
4-2-3-1 vs 4-3-3
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Only a single point separates these sides going in: Angers sit 12th on three points from two games with a level goal difference, while Rennes are seventh on four points at plus-one. Monaco already lead the table on nine points from three matches, so both clubs are still fighting their way out of the early-season pack. Angers opened with a 0-2 home defeat to Lille before winning 3-1 away at Auxerre in round two.
- Rennes have played both of their league fixtures at home so far, drawing 2-2 with Paris Saint-Germain on matchday one and edging Le Mans 3-2 in round two to stay unbeaten. Five goals scored in two outings underlines their attacking punch, but four conceded points to a defence still finding its footing. This is their first away trip of the campaign, and reproducing that home rhythm on the road is the immediate test.
- Rennes centre-forward Esteban Lepaul, 26, returns to the club that made him. He climbed through the French lower divisions with Epinal and Orleans before breaking through at Angers and earning his move to Rennes, and his mix of penalty-box instinct and relentless pressing has put him in the conversation among Ligue 1's leading scorers. Facing his former employers on their own ground is the storyline of the night.
- Rennes line up in a 4-3-3 with plenty of individuality up front. Left-footed number ten Ludovic Blas, 28, scored the winner in the 2022 Coupe de France final for Nantes and can unlock a defence with either a dribble or a through ball. On the right is Jordan international Mousa Al-Tamari, 29, the first Jordanian to play in a top-five European league when he joined Montpellier, whose left foot makes cutting inside to shoot his signature move.
- Angers counter with a 4-2-3-1 whose attacking band is built on dribblers. Anthony Belmont, 21, came through the Reims academy and was named Ligue 2 young player of the season in 2024-25 while on loan at Annecy, operating as a right-footed left winger. Morocco's Amine Sbai, 25, occupies the middle with a similar inverted profile, while Gabon international Jim Allevinah, 31, a standout at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, works the right flank.
- The midfield shape is a double pivot against a three. Angers pair 188cm Branco van den Boomen, 31, on loan from Ajax and a Ligue 2 title winner with Toulouse whose set-piece delivery is a genuine weapon, with academy graduate Yassin Belkhdim, 24. Rennes answer with holding midfielder Valentin Rongier, 31, a former captain of both Nantes and Marseille, alongside the combative Mahdi Camara, 28, who wore the armband at Saint-Etienne and reached the Champions League with Brest.
- Both back lines are built for aerial duels. Angers pair 197cm Mali international centre-back Ousmane Camara with left-footed veteran Jordan Lefort, 33, whose career has taken in Amiens, Young Boys and Paris FC. Rennes match that with Anthony Rouault, 25, who played Bundesliga and Champions League football at VfB Stuttgart, and 187cm Englishman Charlie Cresswell, 24, a Leeds United academy product who arrived via Millwall and Toulouse.
- The goalkeeping duel carries real pedigree. Anthony Lopes, 35, spent roughly twelve seasons as Lyon's first choice and was part of Portugal's Euro 2016 winning squad. At the other end stands Brice Samba, 32, a former number one at Nottingham Forest and Lens who was voted Ligue 1's best goalkeeper in 2022-23. Both are left-footed shot-stoppers comfortable playing out from the back.
- The benches tell different stories. Angers stock theirs with youth: 19-year-old striker Prosper Peter, who signed professional terms in September 2024 and made his Ligue 1 debut in April 2025, fellow teenager Arouna Zibilin, and 2009-born defender Mael Jernigon. Rennes hold back experience and finishing instead, with 32-year-old Adrien Thomasson, a Coupe de la Ligue winner at Strasbourg, and 21-year-old Eliezer Mayenda, who scored in the Premier League for Sunderland.