Abdoulaye Doucoure’s second-half strike saw Rennes hold champions Paris Saint-Germain to a 1-1 draw in Ligue 1 yesterday.
Doucoure equalised just before the hour-mark to cancel out Zoumana Camara’s opener and ensure Rennes maintained their impressive start to the campaign.
Philippe Montanier’s side, who finished 12th last season, are now third in the table and level on points with second-placed PSG.
Les Parisiens enjoyed a strong start to the contest and almost took the lead when Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s acrobatic effort was blocked by Benoit Costil.
Rennes gradually found their feet, however, and forced Salvatore Sirigu to make his first save of the match when Sanjin Prcic unleashed a long-range effort.
PSG went closest to breaking the deadlock three minutes before half-time and it was Ibrahimovic who was involved again as the striker was given the ball by Marco Verratti and his right-footed volley crashed against the crossbar.
Two minutes later, the visitors did finally open the scoring. Gregory Van der Wiel picked the ball up on the right and his cross found Camara who drove home from close range.
The second half began much as the first had ended and PSG could have doubled their advantage when Lucas Moura found Edinson Cavani, whose shot had to be palmed away by Costil.
In the 56th minute, Rennes made their opponents pay for their wastefulness in front of goal as Paul-Georges Ntep’s delivery was diverted into the net by Doucoure to make it 1-1.
Ibrahimovic tested Costil with a 30-yard free-kick soon after but the Rennes goalkeeper was equal to the shot while Ntep also saw an effort saved late on as the sides were forced to settle for a draw.
It was a third draw in three away trips for PSG, but goalscorer Camara is unworried.
He said: “I would have preferred not to score and to win the match.
“It’s not worrying. It’s a draw. There’s nothing alarming about that.
“Now we have to recover because the Champions League is Wednesday. It’s going to be something else, that’s for sure.”
Boss Laurent Blanc added: “We really wanted to score a second goal but everything was against us.”
