OUR man in France is Julien Laurens and he's looking at Rennes v PSG.
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 PSG (Sat 4pm)
The home side, currently sixth in the table, have high hopes for this game against the league leaders. Paris beat Strasbourg (4-2) away in midweek in the league cup while Rennes continued their good run under new manager Sabri Lamouchi by beating Marseille on penalties.
The Parisians got their revenge on Strasbourg who beat them in the league two weeks ago. Even without Neymar and other key players (Thiago Silva, Adrien Rabiot, Kylian Mbappé) they cruised to a win. Neymar will be back for this game in Rennes. The Brazilian superstar was in his homeland for family reasons but is back now and fully fit and ready for the weekend.
Mbappé will also come back in the starting line up alongside Neymar and Edinson Cavani up front. Cavani is going through a bad patch as he hasn’t scored in the last four games now! He had started the season so strongly and he will want to put an end to his drought on Saturday. Thiago Motta and Rabiot are still out while Silva is a major doubt.
Manager Unai Emery has many options in midfield though to play alongside Verratti: Draxler, Lo Celso, Pastore or even Di Maria can all play there. PSG have a good record in Rennes in the last six years: four wins and two draws there. But there were also tricky games without many goals. The Parisians will be confident that they can get another win before finishing the year strongly at home next week.
Rennes have not been very good at home this season so far with just four wins, one draw and three defeats. It is only the 13th best record in the league so far. They have nothing to lose against the league leaders though but the players will want to show the manager that they can compete with the best. They won four and drew one in their last five matches in all competitions under Lamouchi.
They have a lot of momentum and the game is sold out. There will be a great atmosphere in the ground and the fans are dreaming of a win over Paris. However, I think Paris will be really focused and determined to not make the same mistakes as when they lost at Strasbourg two weeks ago. So I think Paris will win on Saturday. I think Neymar will score first at 3.95 and my best bet is the visitors to win both halves at 2.45.
Julien's Tips
- Rennes 0, PSG 2 (6-1, Unibet)
- Neymar to score first (59-20, Unibet)
- PSG to win both halves (29-10, Unibet)
