Sunderland vs Rennes

Sunderland vs Rennes Preview

Pre-season’s nearly done, and Sunderland are rounding things off in style — European football on the horizon, a seven-place Premier League finish already banked, and a full house expected at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon. This is more than just a fitness run-out. Rennes are arriving from Ligue 1, potentially future Europa League opponents, and both sides will want to hit the ground running when the competitive stuff kicks off. There’s a bit of needle to this one, even if nobody’s going to break a leg trying to win it.

Sunderland head into the final pre-season fixture on the back of two clean sheets and two wins, including a confident 2-0 dismantling of Lens last weekend. For a club that only returned to the top flight recently, the ambition is clear — Le Bris has built something real at the Stadium of Light, and the squad looks ready. Rennes, meanwhile, are travelling off the back of a 4-2 thumping from Brentford, which won’t have pleased Franck Haise, a manager who spent most of last season dragging his side out of a rut in Ligue 1. Getting battered by a mid-table Premier League side a week before the season starts is not the ideal preparation.

There’s a lovely subplot to this one too. Regis Le Bris grew up in Brittany, not far from Rennes, and actually worked as an academy coach at the club earlier in his career. He knows these people. And in competitive football, he’s never lost against Rennes — four wins from four in Ligue 1 when he was at Lorient. Whether that psychological edge means anything in a pre-season friendly is debatable, but it adds a bit of flavour to proceedings. A Sunderland win on Saturday would also give them a 100% record on English soil this summer, which, even in pre-season, gives you a sense of how settled and purposeful this squad looks.

Sunderland vs Rennes Form

Sunderland’s pre-season form has been quietly impressive. They hammered York City 5-1 back in mid-July, then kept it tight and professional against Lens, winning 2-0 with Trai Hume and Wilson Isidor getting on the scoresheet. What’s particularly encouraging is that Robin Roefs hasn’t conceded in either of the two August outings. For a side that was the fourth-best defensive team in the Premier League last season with 48 goals conceded, that defensive solidity carrying into pre-season suggests the back line is already sharp and well-drilled. These aren’t flukey clean sheets against park-level opposition either — Lens are a proper Ligue 1 outfit.

Rennes are a different story right now. They’ve let in seven goals across their last two pre-season friendlies, and that leakiness at the back is worrying, especially when you consider they also shipped seven in their final three league games of last season. Haise has clearly got work to do at the defensive end. The attack looks lively enough — Esteban Lepaul, who was the top scorer in Ligue 1 last season, already has six pre-season goals, and Sebastian Szymanski and Valentin Rongier both found the net against Brentford — but if you’re gifting goals like this going into a new campaign, the alarm bells should be ringing. They did win their last two pre-season games after scoring first, but that win-if-we-score-first pattern only holds if your defence stops the opposition equalising, which hasn’t been the case lately.

One more thing worth noting on the form front: Sunderland haven’t won a pre-season friendly at the Stadium of Light since beating Hull City 2-1 in July 2021. That’s a run they’ll be desperate to end in front of their own supporters as they gear up for a genuinely exciting European campaign. Sometimes those little narratives matter more than people admit when it comes to momentum and belief heading into a new season.

Sunderland vs Rennes Head to Head

These two sides don’t have a meaningful history of competitive meetings, so there’s no real head-to-head record to pull apart here. What we do know is that Le Bris’s personal record against Rennes in competitive football is exceptional — four wins from four when he faced them as Lorient boss in Ligue 1. That’s obviously a different context to a pre-season friendly, but it speaks to the fact that he understands how Rennes operate and where they can be hurt. Haise, on the other hand, has only managed one competitive game on English soil, and it ended in a 6-0 Arsenal thumping when he was at Lens in the Champions League. That’s a small sample, but it suggests English football hasn’t been particularly kind to him as a visiting manager.

Without a substantial head-to-head record to dig into, the broader context matters more here. Sunderland are at home, in form, and full of confidence. Rennes are leaking goals and coming off a heavy defeat. The situational factors point firmly in one direction, even accounting for the fact that pre-season results don’t always follow the obvious logic.

Sunderland vs Rennes Lineups

Le Bris has some selection headaches to manage carefully. Omar Alderete and Nordi Mukiele are both carrying minor knocks, and the boss has confirmed they’re unlikely to feature. Romaine Mundle and Simon Adingra are also doubtful due to injuries, which limits his options in wide areas. Still, the expected lineup — Roefs in goal, with Meunier, Ballard, O’Nien, and Reinildo across the back four, Xhaka and Diarra in midfield, Hume, Le Fee, and Angulo in support of Brobbey up top — is a serious XI. That’s not a team of fringe players, that’s close to his first-choice side, and it shows Le Bris is taking this seriously despite the friendly tag.

Rennes have a debut to look forward to, with Charlie Cresswell set to make his first pre-season appearance after signing from Toulouse earlier this month. Samba starts in goal, with Frankowski, Boudlal, Cresswell, and Merlin likely across the back line. Rongier sits in the middle, with Szymanski, Al-Taamari, Thomasson, and Soumare in support of Lepaul. That’s an attacking-minded setup, but given how porous they’ve been at the back, whether Cresswell and a reshuffled defence can tighten things up immediately remains to be seen. Lepaul’s goal threat is very real — six pre-season goals is not a number you ignore — but he’ll need far better defensive cover behind him than Rennes have been providing.

Sunderland vs Rennes Tactics

Le Bris has hinted that he doesn’t want to go too hard in this game and risk picking up further injuries heading into competitive action. That makes sense — you wouldn’t want to lose a key player to a pre-season friendly niggles, especially with European football just around the corner. The concern with that approach is that a passive Sunderland, sitting deep and allowing Rennes to build, could actually suit Haise’s side. Lepaul and Szymanski are clever enough attackers to exploit space if Sunderland don’t press high, and Rennes will fancy their chances of getting at a back line that isn’t working flat out. There’s a real possibility that Le Bris’s cautious mindset hands Rennes more of the ball than they’d normally get against a side of Sunderland’s quality.

Haise will want his side to be on the front foot from the off. Rennes like to carry the ball forward quickly through midfield, with Szymanski pulling strings and Lepaul making intelligent runs in behind. If Sunderland sit deep and invite pressure, expect Rennes to ask serious questions of that back line. The flip side is that Sunderland are well-organised defensively even at half throttle — those clean sheets in pre-season didn’t happen by accident — and Xhaka in the engine room will set the tempo if they do decide to play with a bit more intensity. This feels like a game where both sides score, Rennes exploit whatever defensive generosity Sunderland show, but the hosts’ quality in the final third edges it.

Sunderland vs Rennes Prediction and Betting Tips

This sets up nicely as a Both Teams to Score game. Sunderland have the firepower to hurt a leaky Rennes backline, and with Le Bris reportedly prepared to sit back a bit to protect his squad, Lepaul and Szymanski will get opportunities to do damage at the Stadium of Light. Rennes have scored in all their pre-season games and their attack is genuinely dangerous even when the rest of the team isn’t firing. Back Sunderland to win, but don’t expect another clean sheet with this Rennes forward line in town.

The tip is Sunderland to win and both teams to score. The hosts are the better-organised, more confident outfit right now and the home advantage matters even in pre-season — they’ll want to send the Stadium of Light crowd home happy before the real stuff begins. But Rennes have too many attacking weapons for Sunderland to keep them quiet if they’re deliberately sitting off. Match Result and BTTS, Sunderland win, both score.