Defeated Thursday evening on home ground by Villarreal (2-3), Stade Rennais finished second in their Europa League group. The Breton club will have to compete in a play-off to hope to continue their progress in the competition.
Stade Rennais had its destiny in its hands. Or rather his feet, at kick-off time of his last match of the Europa League group stage. At home, Julien Stephan’s men welcomed their direct pursuer in Group F, Villarreal. With first place at stake, it was ultimately the visitors who managed to take the best and win (2-3). Rennes therefore moves back one place and ends this phase in second place, synonymous with a play-off against a team dropped from the Champions League.
No direct qualification for the eighth, for Martin Terrier and his family. And this is ultimately not illogical given the progress of a meeting during which Villarreal will always have taken the initiative, while the locals will have reacted. The first goal was for the “Yellow Submarine”, with a penalty converted by Gérard Moreno (0-1, 36th). Immediate reaction from the locals, thirty seconds later, with the equalizer from Lorenz Assignon (1-1, 37th). At the break, the Bretons were still leading group F.
Disallowed goal and confusion
But at the break, they repeated with a second opposing goal, this time scored by Ilias Alkhomach (1-2, 63rd). Here again, Rennes found the reaction force necessary to come back to the level a second time, thanks to a shot from Ludovic Blas slightly deflected by an opposing foot (2-2, 79th). But Villarreal still had resources and in the minute that followed, Daniel Parejo gave his team the lead again (2-3, 80th). In a slightly crazy and confusing end to the match, Stade Rennais was denied a goal from Assignon in stoppage time (90th+11) for an offside that was very difficult to identify.
At the final whistle, the players came to surround the refereeing body to try to understand the reason for this decision. The result and the victory of Villarreal means in any case that it is the Spanish club which passes Rennes and which qualifies directly for the round of 16 of the Europa League.
