Guningamp have great fans so this will be special to them so congrats to them. I wont be watching a Rennes-Guningamp final but there will be 79,000 people at the game nonetheless.
Rematch of the 2009 Coupe de France final where a Ligue 2 Guingamp overcame a 1 goal deficit to fellow Brittany neighbors to win 2-1 via Eduardo.. great atmosphere and very fun game to watch.
Rennes have a decent team. Like to see them in the Europa League. Yeah after Guingamp won it, next year they drew Schalke 04 in the Europa League and of course got crushed.
Yea, I usually prefer the underdogs in these circumstances. This time is no different for me since I think both teams will probably not make it far in Europa League when they do get there.
Rennes have a poor record in the Europa League/Uefa Cup but they are one of the few French teams not in financial trouble so they do have money to strengthen their squad like they did last winter. Toivonen has been great and has had experience playing in Europe. Ntep one of the best young players in Ligue 1. Alessandrini, Makoun, Pitropia, all good players. Kadir and Olivieria are there are loan and lets see what they do with them. Kadir has been great and should stay I think.
Damn I would have preferred Monaco...Defeat would have been understandable and honourable AND we would be in UEFA ! Now it's Guingamp - who deserve every bit of this final - they have Rennes' number so we're likely to have our asses kicked in front of everybody, it's going to be embarrassing and on top of that, no Europaleague... Of course there's the uncanny case of SRFC actually winning the title...
CdL goes to PSG in a closely fought game that had a controversial penalty call for the Parisians. I'm not gonna dwell on it because what's the use? Lyon have had a few games that went against them because of referee decisions this season but this one was not the most egregious.
League Cup is a farce anyway. Lyon and PSG only had to win a few matches to get to the final. I only enjoy it when a underdog team wins it which doesnt seem to happen much lately.
Okaaaaaay... HT 1-0 for the peasa Guingamp. Very deserved for them as they've actually played the game of football unlike Rennes who are traditionally choking big time, worse than I expected, feared.
So a team owned by a guy whose family is worth 15 billion got beat by a team from a village with 7,000+ inhabitants. Only in France.
Btw, Romain Alessandrini who tried to force a transfer to Marseille, comes up small in the biggest game of his life. If I was a Rennes fans Id tell him to Get the F out. Toivonen came up small as well.
Again, I have no hatred towards Guingamp because they have great great fan support but they are a small club and if you like seeing small clubs win a Cup then great but I dont know any place other than France where that happens. So thats either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your position. All I know is Gunigamp is in the Europa League now and they will draw a much bigger club and lose and to that I say YAWN.
Bon ben voilà voilà... Completely deserved by Guingamp and deserved for Rennes...Not really a surprise in the end. SRFC should hire a psychologist ASAP. Different managers, different teams but still the same outcome ; can we call it club culture ? Une finale ça ne se joue pas, ça se perd... When you're Rennes that is...
How does Rennes fall to their smaller neighbors.. very rarely would we see Barce lose to Espanyol in a cup final if it came down to it.
Guingamp also eliminated Monaco so they are clearly a good team its just hard to understand how a team with a 22m budget can be so good. I guess its why we all love French football. Its just so unpredictable.
It has to be said that Guingamp beat Rennes twice in the championship ; their style of play seems to be like kryptonite for Le Stade but then again EAG played the game of their lives in the final and SRFC simply didn't play proper football except maybe in the very late stages. Now why are Rennes so inhibited and choke that spectacularly ? Frankly I don't know ; there must be something going on in that club...It remains a genuine mystery !
At least Rennes cemented their reputation : http://lebuzz.eurosport.fr/article/en-plus-les-rennais-en-prennent-plein-la-tete_a2232/1
actually guingamp is just a part of the st-brieuc agglomeration, which, while smaller than rennes, is about 150,000 people. it's not a village. and based not just on last night but also on the standings and what SRFC has done in previous european chances, it's hard to say they would be a better EL entry than EAG.
Yeah we discussed this before and I keep forgetting that.. I dont agree with that, man. They have a very good roster on paper. If they had Toivonen, Grosicki, and Ntep the whole season they would have finished higher. Plus Alessandrini had a down year and this guy is supposed to be a tremendous talent. So IF they had qualified with this team back plus Pinault getting out the check book to give them a little bit more boost, I dont see how they would have duplicated their past failed performances. Again just my opinion.