Stade Rennais vs Monaco - Will The Home Side Extended Their Good Run Against Monaco?

Next Saturday, Stade Rennais will entertain the new millionaires of French football - Monaco - at Stade de la Route de Lorient for round 33 of Ligue 1 on what will certainly be an extremely important match for the visitors.

Monaco spend big this season in order to threaten Paris Saint-Germain’s recent dominance of French football, but they have failed to achieve their goals this season. The Monegasque club are thirteen points behind the league leaders (PSG) and they will have to be alert until the end of the season in order to keep Lille, currently at 3rd place, at bay.

Last weekend Monaco grabbed a very important 3-1 win against Nantes with two goals from the Colombian wonderkid James Rodríguez and managed to shake off the bad vibes from their defeat at Evian two weeks ago.

Monaco’s Italian head coach, Claudio Ranieri, is certainly aware of the difficulties his team will face next Saturday at the Stade de la Route de Lorient against a Stade Rennais side that is currently enjoying a very positive moment.

For next Saturday’s match, Ranieri will still not be able to count on the Colombian superstar forward Radamel Falcao, who is still recovering from injury, and on the French Youth international left back Layvin Kurzawa, who is also injured.

The home side, Stade Rennais are on very positive row of three matches undefeated at Ligue 1 and will certainly want to extend their good run unto next Saturday’s match against Monaco.

The team’s manager, the charismatic Philippe Montanier, who arrived this season at the French club after a fantastic spell at Real Sociedad, brought in new routines and new ideas to the Rennes’ side, however, after a good season start, the team became slightly inconsistent, especially when playing away from home.

Last week, Stade Rennais grabbed an important draw against Bordeaux, extending their run without any defeats to three matches, after having beaten Marseille and Bastia on the previous rounds.

For next Saturday’s match, Philippe Montanier will not be able to count on the French forward Paul-Georges Ntep and on the Burkinabé winger Jonathan Pitroipa, both of them sidelined due to injury.

When both teams met at Stade Louis II last November, the home side won the match by 2-0 with goals from James Rodríguez and Anthony Martial. Next Saturday’s match will certainly be a very close one that can really go either way and it is likely that Stade Rennais will try to take advantage from Monaco’s recent inconsistent performances.

Stade Rennais

Stats: W-9 L-12 D-11

Recent Form - LLWWD

Monaco

Stats: W-19 L-4 D-9

Recent Form - WWDLW

Possible Line-ups

Stade Rennais (4-3-3) - Costil - Mbengue - Kana-Biyik - Armand - Danze - Makoun - Konradsen - Doucoure - Grosicki - Toivonen - Alessandrini

Monaco (4-4-2) - Subasic - Fabinho - R. Carvalho - Abidal - Raggi - Toulalan - J. Moutinho - Obbadi - J. Rodríguez - Berbatov - Riviere

Prediction: Stade Rennais 1 Monaco 1