Rennes Defeated Leicester City 2-1 but was not enough to progress to Conference League quarter-finals

Rennes outplayed Leicester City in almost every ramifications of the Europa Conference League round of 16 second leg tie. But their dominance in the game could not give them the needed outcome.

On March 17, 2022, Leicester City visited Roazhon Park in France to fight for a Europa Conference League quarter-final ticket against a very resilient French Ligue 1 side. The Premier League team went into the game with a 2-0 first-leg win which gave them an edge over their hosts in the second leg.

During the keenly contested Conference League game, Rennes played with the awareness that they needed nothing but a win to stand a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals stage of the competition.

Almost every good aspect of the stats favored the French team including the scoreline but their performance in the first leg of the game was their undoing.

Before their fate was decided, Rennes enjoyed a whopping 69 percent of the ball possession during the second leg clash as against Leicester’s 31 percent of the ball possession. Rennes’ pass accuracy was 87 percent while that of their visitors was just 68 percent.

As the hosts were in control of the ball, so were they creating goalscoring opportunities. Their efforts to score a goal led to 12 shots, three of the shots were on target.

Even though Leicester City did not see much of the ball, the Premier League side were able to record 10 shots, four of which were on target.

In terms of goals, Rennes’ 8th minute shot from Benjamin Bourigeaud gave the hosts the lead and raised the hope of the French side that they could overturn the result of the first leg.

However, Leicester’s Wesley Fofana who just recovered from a broken leg injury scored what was the tie decider in the 51st minute. But that did not stop the French side from trying to overturn the result. Their effort paid off in the 75th minute when 29-year-old French midfielder Flavien Tait scored the winner.

But the goal which ended the second leg tie 2-1 was not enough to change the overall outcome of the game. Hence, Rennes ended their journey in the Europa Conference League 2-3 on aggregate.

Our Blue Army 💙👏 pic.twitter.com/HjRXIFegPw

— Leicester City (@LCFC) March 17, 2022

Leicester City coach Brendan Rodgers reacts to the victory over Rennes

Leicester City have been struggling in virtually all competition this season, especially in the Premier League. Hence, it was not a surprise that they struggled away against Rennes in the Europa Conference League.

Despite their struggles, the English side was able to make it to the quarter-final stage of the Conference League 3-2 on aggregate.

After the victory over the French side, the coach of Leicester City, Brendan Rodgers told BT Sport that his team showed “real character” despite having a number of his players missing due to injuries.

“Our [use of the ball], especially in the first half, was nowhere near what I’d expect”, the coach said. “But what we showed tonight was a real character. Especially with lots of players missing, and lots of young players, playing at this level for the first time, it’s character building for them.

“Rennes are a good side so getting through in the end was a fantastic feeling. We knew they’d make a fast start and come after us and they get the early goal as well but we showed a good mentality and good concentration level.”

Leicester City qualified for the Conference League second leg in an expensive way

Ahead of the 2021-2022 season, Leicester City has recorded several injury woes which have made them struggle on many fronts. To make things worse for them, as some of the players are recovering, others are sustaining fresh injuries.

That was the story of the Premier League side on Thursday in the Conference League match against Rennes. As the team welcomed back Wesley Fofana, two of the team’s most important players, Marc Albrighton and Wilfred Ndidi sustained injuries in the Conference League game.

Coach Brendan Rodgers said: “Marc felt his groin. Ndidi, it was a block tackle, his medial ligament in his knee, we’ll see how that is. But it has been us for most of the season. We lost a couple of players just before we were traveling as well but the guys showed tremendous spirit to get through the tie.”