Twelve defeats, five draws, and counting
Seventeen. That is where Franck Haise’s Europa League record sits after Rennes drew 0-0 at Sturm Graz on Wednesday, and none of those 17 has been a win.
The Bretons opened their campaign with a point on the road in Austria. Useful enough on its own terms. It does nothing for the number hanging over their coach.
Canal+ put the question to him afterwards, and Haise took it well. “My first Europa League win still not here? Come back next time, we will try again,” he said, laughing.
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Two clean sheets in a row, which is not nothing
He was not about to bin the evening. An away point in Europe is a start, and Rennes have now gone two matches without conceding.
“We start with an away point in European competition, and we will need to build on it for our first home game,” Haise said. “We keep the run going and we keep improving. We have not conceded for the second time in a row, so some things are moving in the right direction.”
Then he named the part that keeps eluding his side. “In football, you have to be clinical up front, solid at the back, and good in possession. We do not always manage to put the three together, but there is some good in it.” Two out of three has been the story of Rennes’ European nights for a while now.
OFI Crete, at home, on October 15
The fixture list has handed him something. Rennes host OFI Crete in the next round, a tie that reads very differently to a trip to Graz.
If the run is going to end, that is the night for it.
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