OUR man in France is Julien Laurens and he's looking at the Brittany derby between Rennes and Nantes on Saturday.
Julien is a London-based sports correspondent for Le Parisien and a veritable French football expert. He writes in French and English for a number of esteemed publications and is a regular on BT Sport as well as contributing to Unibet.
Rennes v Nantes (Sat 4pm)
Nantes, currently 5th in the table, travel to Rennes, 11th, on Saturday in a huge Derby de Bretagne. The home side have a new manager in Sabri Lamouchi who lost his first game in charge last weekend away at Strasbourg (2-1).
Former manager Christian Gourcuff had won his last four games before being sacked and then Lamouchi’s debut was disappointing. So the new coach will be under huge pressure for this game against the old enemy.
Rennes have some players missing, especially at the back (Bensebaini, Baal). Joris Gnagnon should be fit though while Bourigeaud and Khazri, two very important players are back from suspensions.
Going forward, in the absence of Ismaila Sarr and Maoussa, they are not scoring many goals but Yoann Gourcuff is back to full fitness and he will boost his team and bring a lot of creativity.
Nantes have a full squad available. They have a good record away at Rennes with just one loss in their last four visits. Manager Claudio Ranieri has made this team very strong defensively. They lost at Paris last weekend (4-1) but gave it a good go.
They were not too disappointed by that defeat and are very much looking forward to this derby. The players have only lost two of their last eleven league matches so the confidence is really high.
It should be a cagey game but I think Nantes will win and keep a clean sheet.
Julien's Tips
- Rennes 0, Nantes 1 (13-2, Unibet)
- Emiliano Sala to score first (21-4, Unibet)
- Nantes win to nil (15-4, Unibet)
