Very young Brandon Soppy and Eduardo Camavinga will discover the Champions League with Stade Rennais.

-

Damien Meyer / AFP

  • Stade Rennais is participating in the Champions League for the first time in its history.

    He will face Sevilla FC, Chelsea and Krasnodar.

  • The team coached by Julien Stéphan has similarities with Atalanta Bergamo, surprise guest of the quarter-finals last season.

  • From the coaching of Gasperini to the absence of stars through the trust placed in young people, the Italian and French staff show some common points.

Sevilla FC, Chelsea and Krasnodar (Russia).

The winner of the Europa League, the new club of Edouard Mendy and one of the four debutants of the competition.

Here is the delicate draw that Stade Rennais inherited for its first participation in the Champions League.

Qualified thanks to its third place in Ligue 1, Julien Stéphan's team will make its big debut on October 20 or 21.

With full confidence, can the current leader of the French championship hope to finish in the top two of his group?

And why not.

Last year, a new kid was invited to the final table for his first participation in C1.

Atalanta Bergamo had given themselves the right to dream of a semi-final, until Marquinhos and Choupo-Moting hit in stoppage time. But the Italian team had revealed itself to the world thanks to a incredible comeback in the group stage before sticking eight pawns in Valencia in two games.

Can Stade Rennais dream of the same future?

Not impossible.

The same rotten bib

With a UEFA coefficient of 14, the Breton club is the little thumb of this C1 Covid version.

Only the Hungarians of Ferencváros do worse.

Last year, Atalanta Bergamo and its 100 million budget were in the same position, only preceding LOSC at the bottom of the hat 4. “They have to take this competition as a way of learning.

It's a young team, working well and progressing year after year.

After, why not make a blow, analyzes the consultant of RMC Sport Eric Di Meco.

“The Rennais can benefit from a surprise effect.

They got off to a good start in the league, they are coming with confidence, ”said Ousmane Dabo, a midfielder trained at Stade Rennais and passed through Atalanta.

“At the start of the competition, everyone has their chance,” Kévin Téophile-Catherine said.

The former Rennais knows something about it.

Last year, his Dinamo Zagreb stuck 4-0 to the Italians for their first Champions League match.

Bergamo followed with a cruel defeat against Donetsk and a slap in the face at Manchester City but had miraculously qualified.

“It wasn't much of a surprise.

Their team has been progressing for years.

When you watch Italian football, you see that they have the potential.

Offensively, it's a very good team, ”said KTC.

A sorcerer coach

Julien Stéphan is credited with the rare virtues of a leader of men.

His talk before the Coupe de France final won against PSG is one of the best known illustrations.

At just 40 years old, the former Rennes reserve coach is seen as one of the most formidable tacticians in Ligue 1, using and abusing video to study the flaws of his opponents.

The parallel with Gian Piero Gasperini is easy.

“He is a very demanding person.

He asks his players to be 200% and everyone is listening.

Gasperini instilled a winning mentality in his players.

When they lost their first European matches, he was able to give them back their strength, ”explains Julien Rantier.

The striker trained in Nîmes had joined Atalanta almost twenty years ago.

Stationed at Crotone then at Genoa, Gasperini had tried to recruit him, when he was making his weapons in Serie B.

Appointed in 2016 at Atalanta, the Italian coach worked in the shadows, installing his team among the Serie A underdogs. The sorcerer Gasperini stood out by opting for a central defense to three, leaving his two side play pistons.

Sometimes risky but often spectacular.

“He has a game plan that he sticks to.

Julien Stéphan does a little the same.

He manages his group well, he takes his time, ”says Ousmane Dabo.

The absence of stars,

a strength

Who in Europe knows Damien Da Silva or Benjamin Bourigeaud?

Apart from its nugget Eduardo Camavinga and its world champion Steven Nzonzi, Stade Rennais has a workforce, certainly solid, but not very well known to the general public.

Another point in common with "the Dea" (the goddess).

United behind the club man Papu Gomez, the team aligned by Gasperini does not have very high-sounding names, even if a good number of European clubs would like to afford the Colombians Duvan Zapata and Luis Muriel or the Croatian Mario Pasalic.

“There are no stars in this team, and that's what makes it strong.

Gasperini knew how to magnify them.

The players have a sense of sacrifice, of common effort.

They run a lot and defend while advancing.

They are interchangeable and it doesn't matter if one or two are missing for a game.

It's a treat to watch it play, ”says Ousmane Dabo.

Confidence in young people

Former coach of the Stade Rennais reserve, Julien Stéphan has made the training center a pool of talent from which he draws unceremoniously.

We obviously think of Eduardo Camavinga but also of Yann Gboho, Brandon Soppy or the recent hero against Monaco Adrien Truffert.

“When I was at the training center, I was gradually integrated with the pros in training.

I started playing in the cup, then moved to the championship, ”remembers Kévin Téophile-Catherine.

In Lombardy, it's the same.

“It is a club which works discreetly, which integrates its young people regularly and which supervises them by experienced players.

Your young people, if you want to keep them, you have to make them play!

», Believes Julien Rantier.

Like the Nzonzi-Camavinga duo, Rennes has also found the delicate balance between passion and experience.

See you in a month to test the formula against the older ones.

Sport

Stade Rennais: How Stéphan's men became the kings of money time

  • Julien Stephan

  • League 1

  • Eduardo Camavinga

  • Soccer

  • Italy

  • Serie A

  • Reindeer

  • Rennais Stadium

  • Champions League

  • Sport