Rennes Score Twice Late to Beat OFI 2-1 After Fountas Opener

By Taki Panos

For 75 minutes in Brittany, OFI looked like they had found the perfect away recipe: score early, defend in tight lines, and make a big French club run out of ideas. Then it all came apart in the final quarter of an hour. Taxiarchis Fountas headed the Cretans in front in the 10th minute, but Rennes hit back through Mahamadou Nagida in the 76th and Abdelhamid Aït-Boudlal in stoppage time to win 2-1 at Roazhon Park on Thursday, on Matchday 2 of the Europa League league phase, as ERT Sports reported. Cruel is the word.

If you are new to this team, OFI are the club of Heraklion, and this is a big season for them. Christos Kontis' side opened the league phase last month by beating Hoffenheim 2-0 at the Pankritio Stadium, with goals from Aitor Cantalapiedra and Giorgos Kanellopoulos, per the DFB data center and SKAI. Their last game before this trip went badly, a 3-0 loss at AEK with all three goals conceded from corners. Curious about the island itself? Our Crete itinerary guide is a good start.

The opening goal was a little gift and a lot of good work. Thiago Nuss pressed hard, Andreas Bouchalakis won the ball, Kenan Kodro laid it off to Nikos Athanasiou, and the left back curled in a cross that Fountas met with a perfect header, Gazzetta wrote. It was OFI's first visit to the Rennes box. French radio station Sud Radio said the move began with a risky pass from Aït-Boudlal straight to an OFI player, and that the young Moroccan defender then lost his man on the cross. Remember that name. He comes back into the story.

Rennes reacted quickly and came close in the 16th minute, when a curling shot from the edge of the box hit the crossbar over Nikos Christogeorgos, according to ERT News. After that, the home side had plenty of the ball but very little to show for it. ERT Sports said most of their efforts flew well over the bar, and OFI went into halftime with their 1-0 lead intact and, honestly, without much stress.

The numbers tell you what kind of night it was. Rennes had 68 percent of the ball and 25 shots to OFI's two, FotMob showed, with an expected goals figure of 1.65 against just 0.06. BBC Sport had Rennes on 13 corners to three and nine shots on target to one. This was a siege, and for a long time OFI were comfortable inside it.

Kontis made one notable change at the break, sending on Giannis Apostolakis for Fountas, as the lineups from BBC Sport and ERT Sports both showed. Later, Aitor came on for Kodro around the 68th minute. The plan stayed the same: stay compact, close the lanes, and hit Rennes on the break. ERT News wrote that the Cretans had shut every corridor in the second half, making it very hard for Rennes to create a clear chance in front of Christogeorgos.

The best chance to settle it actually fell to OFI. Two minutes before the equalizer, Aitor and Nuss had a golden opportunity to make it 2-0 and kill the game, ERT News reported. It did not go in. Football can be rude about that sort of thing, and within two minutes Rennes were level. Nagida, a defender, combined with Mousa Al-Tamari and Estéban Lepaul and finished with the outside of his foot into the top corner in the 76th minute, per ERT Sports and Sud Radio.

From there, Rennes pushed even harder. In the 89th minute Nagida headed at goal from the heart of the OFI defense and Christogeorgos blocked it with his body, ERT Sports wrote. A minute later, in the first moments of added time, Christogeorgos saved another Nagida shot, but the rebound fell to Aït-Boudlal near the penalty spot, and he volleyed it in for 2-1, franceinfo and Sud Radio reported. From villain to hero in one evening. FotMob named Nagida its player of the match.

Kontis did not hide his frustration. "It is a huge missed opportunity for us, we let ourselves down, and I told the players that too," he said after the game, as ERT Sports reported (translated from Greek). "We were not in danger for 60 minutes. We were very good at covering for each other and at how we closed the spaces." Then came the part that clearly bothered him most: "The way the defeat came bothers us. I think we lost our concentration."

The players said much the same thing. Athanasiou, who set up the goal, told Magenta TV that OFI "conceded two silly goals" because they were not focused enough in the last ten minutes, per Gazzetta (translated from Greek). Fountas called it a hard night with no words to say, and pointed straight to Sunday. "As we have shown last season and this season, if we are good, nobody can beat us. It depends on us," he said, ERT Sports reported (translated from Greek).

In the table, the loss drops OFI to 18th with three points from two games, according to in.gr, while Rennes moved to four points after opening with a 0-0 draw at Sturm Graz, franceinfo noted. It was a mixed Thursday for Greek clubs overall, because Olympiacos won 1-0 in Marseille the same night, which we covered here. Kontis, in his press conference, also pointed out that Rennes had not lost at home in a year, per ERT Sports.

My take: this one should sting, but it should not worry anyone in Heraklion. OFI went to a strong French side, scored first, and gave up almost nothing for an hour. What they lacked was the last ten minutes of game management, the boring, ugly art of keeping the ball, winning fouls and running the clock. Kontis said it himself: at this level you need concentration for 95 or 100 minutes. That is a lesson you can learn. Three points from two games is still a respectable start.

OFI do not have long to sulk. They visit Kalamata in the Super League on Sunday, October 18, at 16:00, per SDNA and Kalamata FC, the same Kalamata side that recently stunned PAOK at Toumba. Then Bayer Leverkusen come to the Pankritio on Thursday, October 22, at 19:45 Athens time, per in.gr, with ERT Sports also pointing to that home date. For more on OFI, Greek clubs in Europe and Greek athletes around the world, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Ten minutes short. Next time, maybe not.

Sources: ERT Sports, ERT News, Gazzetta, in.gr, BBC Sport, FotMob, franceinfo, Sud Radio, DFB data center, SKAI, SDNA, Kalamata FC.

Image: Stade Rennais crest from the 1960s, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).