Ligue 1. Penders punished, Amo-Ameyaw showed himself… The tops and flops of Racing Club de Strasbourg

The tops

• A playful Racing, despite the context

Without disrespect, the eleven aligned by Gary O’Neil was far from being able to compete with that of Stade Rennes on paper. The Alsatians did not close the game, however, and should even have opened the scoring with this action by Datro Fofana, at the start of the match. The center forward found himself alone in front of the open goal before coming up against a Rennes defender.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Briton walk on a lawn for such a long time. Regularly used by former coach Liam Rosenior, the young attacker showed himself against Stade Rennes. He took advantage of the exit of Gessime Yassine, replaced by Martial Godo at half-time, to showcase his speed and technical quality in the right lane.

• The bosses did well

Entering the second period, Godo, Enciso, El Mourabet and Omobamidele changed the course of the match. On the edge of the ravine after Rennes’ third goal, the Alsatians finished the game more calmly, taking control of the pace of the match. At least the bill wasn’t too steep.

The flops

• Penders, very good and a fatal error

Given the lack of experience of the Racing defenders, clumsiness and technical errors could be expected. We less imagined that a bad recovery in the axis, at the base of Esteban Lepaul’s opening score, would come from the pillar and captain of the day Mike Penders. The Belgian goalkeeper blundered a second time at the very end of the match, on a delivery from Omobamidele, without punishment this time. That said, he did everything possible on his line.

Wanting to rest your starters in anticipation of the Coupe de France semi-final against Nice is understandable. Bringing them in at the hour mark when the gap between Strasbourg and Rennes was already established is less so. So, it was probably a question of allowing El Mourabet, Enciso, Omobamidele or even Godo, who entered at half-time, to clean up. But these players were also exposed to injury risks quite unnecessarily. Fortunately, no damage has been reported.

• Lepaul overtakes Panichelli in the ranking of top scorers

We knew that the name of the Argentine center forward (injured) would gradually slide in the ranking of top scorers in Ligue 1. He has already lost his first place. Author of his 17^e goal of the season against Strasbourg, Esteban Lepaul is now alone in the lead.