Saint-Étienne pulled past Rennes and into fifth with a 1-0 win in Brittany. Moustapha Bayal Sall's second-half header (74') was enough to separate the sides in a closely fought encounter on Thursday evening.
Stade Rennais FC 0 - 1 AS Saint-Etienne
Sainté frustration
Having caused champions Paris Saint-Germain trouble with a 3-4-3 formation on Sunday, despite losing 2-0, it was something of a surprise that Christophe Galtier reverted to a 4-2-3-1 here. ASSE winter signing Alexander Soderlund looked stranded up front, and his frustration was evident when Kévin Monnet-Paquet flashed an effort off target from 35 metres out when he had other options ahead of him (43').
Rennes have shown shoots of improvement since the appointment of Rolland Courbis in January, with their record of one win and one loss belaying the fact that their movement has looked slicker, and they constructed the best chance of the game soon after the restart. Benjamin André and Dembélé combined well before the latter slipped the ball through to Jérémie Boga, but the Chelsea-owned man failed to find the target from close range (55').
Jean-Christophe Bahebeck stung the gloves of Benoît Costil at the other end (58') before Florentin Pogba - perhaps not as renowned as his Juventus-owned brother Paul in terms of spectacular goals - attempted what would have been one of the strikes of the season, but his bicycle kick sailed just wide (59').
Bayal Sall breaks deadlock
Having drawn their previous four games it looked likely that that record would extend to five with both teams struggling for inspiration, but that all changed on a Renaud Cohade free-kick. The Sainté midfielder whipped a dangerous ball into the Rennes box and Bayal Sall rose highest at the back post to head home his second goal of the season for 1-0 (74').
Rennes attempted to return fire when Dembélé drilled a low cross in for substitute Giovanni Sio, but the Ivorian pulled what might have been his sixth strike of the season wide with the goal at his mercy (78'). Dembélé, 18, remained at full throttle for the duration of the match, but when he next sent a dangerous delivery into the Saint-Étienne area Pogba met the delivery ahead of Kamil Grosicki and the chance went begging (82') and it ended 1-0.
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