M’Baye Niang will miss Celtic vs Rennes clash

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Rennes striker M’Baye Niang will miss his side’s trip to Celtic Park tonight after being left in France.

The official LFP website has stated that manager Julien Stephan will have to make do without his top scorer tonight.

He has also been joined on the unavailable list by highly-regarded Eduardo Camavinga. LFP has stated that this is down to a muscle injury.

There are a couple of boosts for the Rennes boss. Both Benjamin Bourigeaud and Raphinha have travelled with the squad. That’s despite the fact both have been struggling with injuries in recent times.

However, the loss of Niang is a blow. Reasons for his particular absence hasn’t been made clear by the LFP, but he hasn’t been mentioned on the squad list that took the trip to Glasgow.

For a Rennes team who have been struggling to score goals, they could do with their top scorer in the side. Niang has bagged six this season in 16 appearances (Transfermarkt). It’s hardly jaw-dropping stuff, but he adds so much going forward for this Rennes side and did score in the first game between us in France.

Scoring goals has been a problem for Rennes overall

Rennes have only scored 19 goals all season and have netted just two in four Europa League games. Their goalscoring woes are bad enough without Niang missing out.

Romain Del Castillo, Raphinha, Adrian Hunou, and Jordan Siebatcheu make up the attackers who have travelled to Scotland. Between the four of them, they have eight goals (Transfermarkt). It’s hardly inspiring stuff heading into tonight’s clash for our rivals.

Compare that to Celtic. Our joint top-scorers are Odsonne Edouard and James Forrest with 13 respectively (Transfermarkt). Considering we’ve also slammed home 81 goals overall this season, it’s fair to say that we have the edge going forward.

But it’s important to remember that Fraser Forster was also called into action on a couple of occasions in France. They do have some tricky players. If Raphinha plays, he’ll be one to watch in Niang’s absence. He may only have two goals, but he still cost Rennes €21m (Ouest France). He clearly has a quality that has to be respected.

However, the bottom line is that Rennes are struggling for goals and are missing their top-scorer. From a Celtic perspective, that’s a boost to our chances tonight.