Winless in their last five Ligue 1 Uber Eats games, Rennes will be attempting to get their European qualification quest back on track when they host a Nice side that has lost three matches in a row.
RENNES - NICE
(kick-off at 21:00 CET on Friday)
Rennes' poor run has seen them drop to eighth place in the table, while Nice are 16th and now a mere six points above the bottom three with 12 matches remaining of the 2020-2021 campaign for Les Aiglons and one more for Rennes, who have a rearranged Round 22 game at Marseille on March 10.
Julien Stéphan's side fell three places in Round 26 as they fell 2-1 at Montpellier. Stéphan will be without the suspended Faitout Maouassa and the injured Romain Salin (abdominals), but it appears as though Martin Terrier (back), Steven Nzonzi (ankle) and Damien Da Silva (knee) will all win their fitness race.
Stéphan said: "I don't have any particular pressure on me. I put pressure on myself every day as I try to do my best for the club. That the club's directors restate their ambitions and objectives appears legitimate to me and I don't have any extra pressure because of that.
"We all have to face up to our responsibilities from the opening game of the season to the last. We don't deliberately go through a worse spell. We're trying, we're hanging in there and we're correcting things. We're working in order to turn things around, in order to put things simply."
The last time Nice lost three league matches in a row was in October 2019 and they've not lost 13 of their first 26 league matches of the season since 2013-2014, when they finished 17th and narrowly avoided relegation.
Nice coach Adrian Ursea will soon be able to count on the return from injury of key players Kasper Dolberg and Youcef Atal, while midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin is determined to force his way back into Ursea's plans, having started the last four matches on the bench.
Schneiderlin: "Of course I'm annoyed"
Schneiderlin said: "Of course I'm annoyed at being left out! I' pleased about that actually, because if it didn't make me angry then I'd be asking questions of myself and I'd be asking myself if I was still a competitor. The fact that it annoys me proves to me that I still have the desire, that I still have that burning competitive spirit in me. The coach makes his choices and I have to accept them."
Nice fell 1-0 at home to Rennes in December and Schneiderlin said: "When we met them last time, neither them nor us were on a good run. They came here and won and then went on a run of victories. This time, I hope we will win and that we'll also get more victories off the back of it."
Probable Teams:
Rennes: Gomis; Traoré, Da Silva, Aguerd; Truffert; Camavinga, Nzonzi, Bourigeaud; Doku, Guirassy, Terrier
Nice: Benitez; Pelmard, Todibo, Saliba, Kamara; Claude-Maurice, Boudaoui, Lees-Melou; Ndoye, Maolida, Gouiri
