At the end of an evening with a crazy scenario, Rennes snatched the equalizer against Lille (2-2) and narrowly caught Nice to keep their 4th place. Stade Rennes will play in the Europa League next season, and has reversed its history.
We stopped believing it would happen. Yesterday, when Timothy Weah took advantage of yet another lack of mobility in the Rennes block, when the striker crucified Rennes on yet another distant center hitting the mark like too many times this season, when Pierre Mauroy extinguished Rennes’ magnificent parking lot, we didn’t believed more. We no longer believed in it because it had become the tradition for this Stade Rennes, a bad habit to see the hut fall on the dog at the last moment, too often the worst. We no longer believed it because 15 years earlier, a few meters away, Nicolas Fauvergue air-conditioned the entire Breton capital, also by a head. The former Lille still works in the cold, manager of a cryotherapy company, but Rennes has found the heat, that of the intoxication of a goal scored at the last second, favorable this time.
Let’s be clear, the SRFC is far from having made the game of the year. Suffering almost the entire game despite good starts to half-time, the Breton club scored in two situations that did not necessarily end in good phases. Goals “from elsewhere”, first scored by Benjamin Bourigeaud with a chambering mention in front of the Lille parking lot for the Lensois for the first, then by Serhou Guirassy with an angry header mention heroism in front of the Rennes parking lot for the second.
From purgatory to paradise
Between Weah’s goal and that of the Rennes hero, about 5 minutes elapsed. 5 minutes of absolute silence or almost for stunned Rennais, from Pierre Mauroy to Roazhon Park where 4000 of them had gathered to experience the unforgettable. 5 minutes of fear of seeing these old demons appear again, a kind of monster that we thought we would never see come out of the closet. 5 minutes during which the immense joy manifested all afternoon on the Grand Place in Lille by the conquering Rennais gave way to worry, dejection, emptiness. Everything is off, or almost.
Everything died down, except the fervor, that of 2,500 supporters mobilized for a trip to the tunes of Europe. Except for this little spark so specific to this already historic Stade Rennes 2021-2022. Except the desire of an Adrien Truffert at the start of the offensive, then passer of a superb pancake from the left. Except the aggressiveness of a Hamari Traoré who came to midfield to serve his left side, winning his duel. Except the instinct of a magnificent scorer Serhou Guirassy, at the end of the end, the end of an incredible season. Except the burst of pride of a whole group which could not end the season without a European Cup at stake.
By snatching the draw and saving his 4e place, Stade Rennes proved that the past was buried. He demonstrated that far from the lose that stuck with him so much, things could now turn in his favor. At last. “It’s ideal, we reversed things. At the 93e minute you had to start writing that history was repeating itself. » joked Bruno Genesio at a press conference. “Then at the 94e you put away your pens. Thank you. » We no longer believed in it, and we were wrong.
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