Ahead of tomorrow night’s game at Celtic Park, there are a few Rennes stats that read well heading into the game.
There is the obvious one of us sitting top of our Europa League group and Rennes sitting bottom of it, but there are plenty of other reasons to be optimistic for tomorrow’s clash.
One of Celtic’s strongest areas this season in Europe has been their back-line. The partnership between Kristoffer Ajer and Christopher Jullien has given us a base to build our impressive campaign on.
That’s something Rennes probably wish they can gloat about. When Ryan Christie slammed home his penalty in France to peg us back level against the Ligue 1 side, it would be the first of 11 games Rennes would concede in. Indeed, they haven’t managed a single clean sheet since that moment.
In their last 11 matches, the French side have managed to concede a total of 17 goals. It’s hardly an impressive record as they come to Parkhead having conceded every time they’ve faced Celtic.
Away-day blues
And perhaps just as troubling for Rennes will be the fact that this game is indeed away from home. They started off superbly well on their travels this season, picking up wins against Montpellier and Strasbourg respectively. However, since then, they’ve failed to win any of their proceeding seven away matches.
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Successes away from home in Europe have been hard to come by for Rennes also. In their last 10 away European ventures, Rennes have only won two of them (Wiki). One was against little-known Jablonec of the Czech Republic.
In their last 19 away matches in Europe, they’ve only managed to keep a clean sheet in one of them. You have to back to a 2005 0-0 clash with Osasuna to find another one.
So there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic for tomorrow night. Rennes arrive not in great form and certainly there to be got at.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be wary of what they can provide too. They still have some dangerous players in their side that proved they can create chances against us in France. If we let our guard down, there’s nothing to suggest they can’t do so at Parkhead.
But one thing’s for sure, Celtic definitely have plenty in their arsenal to take Rennes down. We just need to make sure, at the end of the day, that the players turn up with the right attitudes.