The masked scorer Gaëtan Laborde could not avoid the defeat of his team this Saturday against Rennes. - Damien Meyer / AFP

  • For its first match of the season, Montpellier leaves Rennes with a logical defeat (2-1).
  • The Montpellier coach was deprived of many players, including Delort and Hilton

A recovery where it all stopped. For its first match of the season in Ligue 1, Montpellier had an appointment at Roazhon Park this Saturday late afternoon. A stadium where Michel Der Zakarian's players had received a nice spanking on March 8 (5-0), just before the championship came to an abrupt end. Six months later, they left Brittany again with a logical defeat in the suitcases (2-1). The addition could even have been heavier, the Rennes having touched by three times the amounts of the new Swiss goalkeeper Jonas Omlin.

#SRFCMHSC
🎙 “Take advantage of this truce to work well, pick up the players in the infirmary and start moving forward!”
Post-match reactions 👇https: //t.co/16olUDMBS9 pic.twitter.com/5bCrkJ7KC6

- MHSC (@MontpellierHSC) August 29, 2020

But unlike last season, the Montpellier had the merit of hanging on and not sinking. "The defeat is not illogical," said captain Daniel Congré. Rennes had a lot of chances in the first half and we suffered a lot. But even at ten, we didn't give up and we stick together. "

Michel Der Zakarian had "no other ammunition"

Michel Der Zakarian also appreciated the “state of mind” of his team. But deprived of several players (Delort, Hilton, Mavididi, Yun and Cozza), the Montpellier coach had no choice but to deal with the means at hand and a decimated attack. “I had no other ammunition,” he admitted at the end of the match. Alone at the top, Gaëtan Laborde, his face masked after his broken nose, however fought like a hell of a devil, reducing the score with the header in stoppage time.

9 - Gaëtan Laborde has scored 9 headed goals in Ligue 1 since joining @MontpellierHSC in the summer of 2018, at least 3 more than any other elite player over the period. Zorro. #SRFCMHSC pic.twitter.com/V0cW631oSM

- Optajean (@OptaJean) August 29, 2020

But overall, Montpellier, reduced to ten just before half-time with the expulsion of Florent Mollet, did not show much, waking up just at the end of the match. Not enough to worry his captain. "We will use this defeat for the future and continue to work," said Daniel Congré.

The international break is in any case timely for the MHSC. For the reception in Nice on September 12, coach Michel Der Zakarian should indeed recover strength and thus have a slightly larger workforce.

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