Rennes vs Krasnodar UEFA Champions League Match Preview or Key Statistics 📊
Rennes and FK Krasnodar have never previously met in any European competition. Rennes haven't faced a Russian side in any European competition, while FK Krasnodar faced French opponents in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League (two draws versus Lille) and 2016/17 Europa League (one win and one defeat versus Nice).
This is both Rennes and FK Krasnodar's first ever Champions League matches -for only the second time in the 21st century, two sides are facing against one another in their first ever games, with the other occasion Manchester City vs Napoli in September 2011.
Rennes are the 11th French team to appear in the UEFA Champions League -the last two French teams to make their first appearances have both lost their first games;
Lille in September 2001 (0-1 vs Manchester United) and Montpellier in September 2012 (1-2 vs Arsenal). FK Krasnodar will be the 7th different Russian team to make a UEFA Champions League appearance -none of the previous six have won their first games in the competition, with the five teams who played away in their first game all losing, most recently Rostov against Bayern Munich in September 2016 who lost 5-0.
Rennes have lost just two of their last 14 home major UEFA European matches (W5 D7), with all those matches coming in the UEFA Cup/Europa League between November 2007 and December 2019. Last season was the first time Rennes had finished in the top-three of the French top-flight, and thus qualified for the UEFA Champions League.
Prior to last season, they had played more seasons without finishing in the top-three than any other team (62). FK Krasnodar have lost eight of their last 12 away major UEFA European matches (W2 D2), all in the Europa League, shipping at least two goals in all eight defeats (21 in total).
Rennes manager Julien Stephan is set to become the 31st different Frenchman to manage in the UEFA Champions League -only two of the last 11 French managers have won their first game in the competition (D4 L5), Zinedine Zidane in February 2016 with Real Madrid and Bruno Genesio in September 2016 with Lyon.
At 36 years old, FK Krasnodar manager Murad Musayev is the second youngest manager in this season's UEFA Champions League, behind only Julian Nagelsmann (33). Musayev could become the fifth youngest manager (36y 345d) to win his first game in charge and youngest since Andre Villas-Boas in September 2011.
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