🏏 Sun, 18 Oct 2026 17:15 CEST
Paris FC
vs
Stade Rennais FC
4-2-3-1 vs 4-3-3
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Fourth-placed Rennes travel to sixth-placed Paris FC with only two points between them, 13 to 11. With PSG and Monaco on 14 and Lyon level with the hosts on 11, the top six is tightly packed and the winner here moves right up against the Champions League places. For Paris FC it is a measuring stick against a side above them.
- Hamari Traore faces the club where he made his name. The 34-year-old Mali captain spent six seasons as a Ligue 1 regular with Rennes before moving to Real Sociedad and then on to Paris, and he still brings the same combination of hard one-v-one defending and accurate crossing from right-back. How the veteran handles 90 minutes against his old side is one of the afternoon's better subplots.
- A second returnee is Pablo Pagis, the 23-year-old winger who learned the game in Rennes' youth system before completing his development at Lorient's academy and breaking into their first team. Naturally a left winger, he is genuinely two-footed, equally comfortable cutting inside or stretching the touchline to cross, and he can also drop into a second striker or number ten role against the club that first schooled him.
- The numbers paint two very different teams. Paris FC have conceded only four goals in six rounds, beating Nice 3-0 and Strasbourg 2-1 at home and grinding out a 0-0 with Lyon. Rennes are far more volatile, with 12 scored and ten conceded: they hammered Auxerre 4-1 at home last time out but were beaten 4-0 away at Lyon the week before. Pinning down that unpredictability is the hosts' main task.
- The goalkeeping matchup is worth the admission. Kevin Trapp, 36, is a former Germany international who spent four seasons at PSG and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt. Brice Samba, 32, was first choice at Nottingham Forest and Lens and was named Ligue 1's goalkeeper of the season in 2022-23; the France international is left-footed and comfortable enough with the ball to start attacks himself.
- Rennes' front three explains their goal tally. Esteban Lepaul, 26, climbed up through Epinal, Orleans and Angers before arriving in Brittany, and his finishing instincts and relentless pressing have put him in the conversation at the top of the scoring charts. Ludovic Blas, the left-footed 28-year-old, scored the winner in the 2022 Coupe de France final for Nantes, while Issa Soumare, 26 and Senegalese, provides the pace and cut-inside threat from wide.
- The midfield behind them is just as well stocked. Sebastian Szymanski, Poland's left-footed number ten, won the Eredivisie with Feyenoord and racked up 22 goals and 30 assists in two and a half seasons at Fenerbahce. Adrien Thomasson, 32, scored 28 goals in 156 games for Strasbourg and sets the attacking tempo, and 22-year-old France Under-21 international Jaouen Cisse adds 188cm of physical presence alongside them.
- Paris FC pair two very different midfielders in front of their back four. Pierre Lees-Melou, 33 and 185cm, was named in Ligue 1's team of the season for 2023-24 at Brest and has Premier League experience with Norwich, bringing box-to-box legs and goals. Beside him, 167cm Maxime Lopez is a Marseille academy technician who played Serie A with Sassuolo and dictates the hosts' rhythm. Against Cisse's size, it is craft versus physique.
- The home attack has plenty of character too. Centre-forward Lassine Sinayoko, 26 and a Mali international, is a 186cm product of Auxerre's academy whose strength and penalty-box instincts make him the focal point. Behind him, Ilan Kebbal is only 169cm but the 28-year-old Algeria international has a superb left foot and registered 11 assists in Ligue 2 in 2023-24. Luca Koleosho, 22, has already played in La Liga with Espanyol and the Premier League with Burnley.
- Rennes' defence is built around two centre-backs with Toulouse on their CV. Anthony Rouault, 25, came through at Toulouse and later played Bundesliga and Champions League football with Stuttgart, while Charlie Cresswell, the 24-year-old Englishman, is a Leeds academy graduate who thrives in the air and defends on the front foot. At right-back, Poland international Przemyslaw Frankowski, 31, recorded some of the highest crossing volumes in Ligue 1 during his Lens years and remains an attacking weapon.