While waiting for PSG - Nice (March 13 at the Parc des Princes), Rennes joined Lyon (L1) and Valenciennes (L2) in the last four of the Coupe de France (draw this Friday evening).
.As his two matches last week showed - exit with honors from the Europa League with a prestigious victory against AC Milan (3-2) and draw at PSG after conceding a questionable penalty in the 90th + 7 (1-1), Rennes has been playing at a very high level lately.
The return of Julien Stephan has relaunched this team which is full of talented individuals.
Compared to the team that upset PSG on Sunday, only Guéla Doué, Baptiste Santamaria, Désiré Doué and Amine Gouiri were renewed as starters.
But the dynamics of Rennes at the moment further enhance the performance of Le Puy.
In front of 30,000 spectators at Geoffroy-Guichard, Le Puy, 2nd in Group A of National 2 (4th division) and Petit Poucet of the Coupe de France, indeed showed a lot of audacity, faithful to the fine reputation it has has been forged for years in amateur football.
Accustomed to relaunching or revealing players, the Haute-Loire club, which had eliminated two L2 teams (Dunkirk, Laval) offered an exciting and uncomplicated performance against one of the big Ligue 1 teams. Some of its players have inevitably caught the eye of recruiters like Jules Meyer or Mehdi Bennedine.
“Le Puy put us in difficulty”
After conceding a first goal in the 9th minute and the powerful header of Belgian international Arthur Theate from a corner (0-1, 9th), many “little ones” could have foundered.
Not this Puy team which continued to play and move forward, faithful to its principles even at 0-2 after the 2nd goal signed Benjamin Bourigeaud from a penalty (48th).
Bryan Adinany's score reduction thus appeared to be a fair reward for the efforts made by Stéphane Dief's team.
If Puy continued to worry the Rennais, Bourigeaud sheltered his team (1-3, 82nd).
He scored a double after his hat-trick against AC Milan last Thursday.
But the Puy players deserved the ovation from the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium at the final whistle.
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“Le Puy can be proud, they showed a beautiful face.
What they did is beautiful.
They put us in difficulty.
They have quality players.
We should have done better but the main thing was to qualify,” recognizes Benjamin Bourigeaud at the microphone of BeIN sport.
“We stood up to them, we didn't foil, we played our football,” said Jules Meyer, the Puy striker.
We managed to score and worry a team that plays in Europe every year.
Seeing all this audience pushing us, it warms our hearts.
We are satisfied with the collective.
Now we hope to move up to National.
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