🏏 Sun, 11 Oct 2026 17:15 CEST
Stade Rennais FC
vs
AJ Auxerre
4-3-3 vs 3-4-2-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Rennes sit sixth on 10 points from five matches (3W-1D-1L), four adrift of leaders Monaco, who have 14 points from six. Crucially, Franck Haise's side still have a game in hand on most of the sides around them. Auxerre arrive 15th on six points with a goal difference of -5, four points behind their hosts and still looking over their shoulder at the bottom three.
- The recent form lines could hardly be more different. Rennes opened with a 2-2 draw against Paris Saint-Germain, then won three in a row — 3-2 over Le Mans, 2-1 away at Angers and 1-0 against Marseille — before being dismantled 4-0 at Lyon in round five. Auxerre lost their first three (2-5 at Lens, 1-3 at home to Angers, 1-3 at Lyon) but have since beaten Nice 1-0 and Brest 2-1, both at the Abbe-Deschamps.
- Naouirou Ahamada returns to a former club. The 24-year-old central midfielder came through Juventus' academy and has since played for Stuttgart, Crystal Palace and Rennes before joining Auxerre. A technically gifted passer with excellent vision, he also has Comorian and Malagasy roots, which has kept his international allegiance a talking point.
- There is a reunion on the other side too: Issa Soumare, the 26-year-old who starts on the left of the Rennes front three, has Auxerre among his previous clubs. The Senegalese winger reached the top flight via the French lower divisions, Beerschot in Belgium and Le Havre. Right-footed but stationed on the left, he will look to cut inside at pace against Auxerre right-back Lamine Sy, 24.
- The midfield battle pits experience against youth. Rennes field captain Valentin Rongier (31, CDM), who previously wore the armband at both Nantes and Marseille, alongside Adrien Thomasson (32), who scored 28 goals in 156 games for Strasbourg, and Mahdi Camara (28), a former Saint-Etienne captain who played Champions League football with Brest. Auxerre counter with academy graduate Kevin Danois (22), whose market value is among the highest in the squad, plus Ahamada and 21-year-old Belgian Arthur Piedfort, signed from Westerlo.
- Esteban Lepaul leads the Rennes line. The 26-year-old centre-forward climbed from the lower leagues through Epinal and Orleans, broke through at Angers and earned his move to Brittany, bringing a sharp goalscoring instinct and relentless pressing. Beside him on the right is Mousa Al-Tamari, the 29-year-old known as 'the Messi of Jordan', who became the first Jordanian to play in a top-five European league with Montpellier and reached the 2023 Asian Cup final with his country.
- Auxerre's front three carries plenty of pedigree. Cameron Archer, 24, was part of England's UEFA Under-21 European Championship-winning squad in 2023 and once commanded a 15-million-pound permanent move to Southampton. On the left, Cameroon international Danny Namaso, 26, scored 14 goals with 10 assists for Porto's first team and likes to cut in off his right foot. Romain Faivre, 28, is on loan from Bournemouth, the left-footed playmaker whose form at Brest once earned a 15-million-euro transfer to Lyon.
- A fascinating contrast between the posts. Brice Samba, 32, is a France international who was first choice at Nottingham Forest and Lens and was named Ligue 1's best goalkeeper in 2022-23; the left-footer is as comfortable starting attacks as he is making saves. Auxerre's Mamadou Diop is a different proposition entirely — a 204cm Senegalese keeper who worked his way up through the French lower divisions at clubs such as Grenoble and dominates everything in the air.
- The centre-back pairings add another layer. Anthony Rouault, 25, has Bundesliga and Champions League experience from Stuttgart, and partners 24-year-old England Under-21 defender Charlie Cresswell — both men arrived in Rennes via Toulouse. Auxerre look to DR Congo international Axel Tuanzebe, 28, a Manchester United academy graduate who won promotion with Aston Villa and Ipswich, with Ivory Coast international Sinaly Diomande, 25, and his 72 Lyon appearances waiting on the bench.