Everything you need to know about the Paris-Rennes game

A bit of history...

This is the 75^th encounter between Paris Saint-Germain and Rennes, and it’s the Parisians who have the upper hand, with 39 wins, 16 draws and 19 defeats.

The Rouge et Bleu do come off the back of a loss against the Rennais, on August 18, 2019 at the Roazhon Park (1-2) just a few days after winning the Trophée des Champions against the club from Brittany in Shenzhen (2-1, 03/08/2019).

Even though the club from the capital recorded an impressive victory over the SRFC at the Parc des Princes (4-1, 27/01/2019), the Rouge et Bleu need to be careful: Rennes are the only side to have won more than once at the Parc des Princes in Ligue 1 since 2011 (on three occasions: 2-1, 17/11/2012, 2-1, 07/05/2014 and 2-0, 12/05/2018). Paris Saint-Germain only lost nine times at home in Ligue 1 during that entire period, with the other six defeats coming against Lorient (2011), Nancy (2011), Saint-Étienne (2012), Monaco (2016), Reims (2019) and Marseille (2020).

30 Players have worn both clubs’ shirts over the years: Jocelyn Angloma, Sylvain Armand, Claude Arribas, Hatem Ben Arfa, Daniel Bernard, Grégory Bourillon, Louis Cardiet, César, Clément Chantôme, Édouard Cissé, Stéphane Dalmat, Kaba Diawara, Nicolas Douchez, Mevlüt Erding, Louis Floch, Franck Gava, Yannick Guillochon, Bernard Lama, Gérard Lanthier, Jérôme Leroy, Stéphane Mahé, François M’Pelé, Guy Nosibor, Grégory Paisley, Albert Poli, Philippe Redon, Christophe Revault, Jocelyn Rico, Bruno Roux and Jean-Luc Vasseur.

Edinson Cavani is Paris Saint-Germain’s top goalscorer against Rennes, having scored seven times. Angel Di Maria and Dominique Rocheteau trail him with six goals apiece, while Kylian Mbappé and Neymar Jr have five, and Pedro Miguel Pauleta, Nenê and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have notched four.

What's at stake...

Paris Saint-Germain will want to forget their defeat away to Leipzig (2-1) in the UEFA Champions League, but they will also be looking to continue their run of consecutive wins in Ligue 1. The Rouge et Bleu have won seven games in a row (against Metz 1-0, away to Nice 3-0, away to Reims 2-0, against Angers 6-1, away to Nîmes 4-0, against Dijon 4-0 and away to Nantes 3-0) and could make their way into the club’s top five list of longest winning runs in the league. The club record of 14 straight wins dates back to the beginning of the 2018-19 season.

Angel Di Maria has scored 84 times for Paris Saint-Germain and could equal Safet Susic (85 goals from 1982 to 1991) to become the joint eighth top scorer in the club from the capital’s history if he finds the net on Saturday.

Key talking points...

Paris Saint-Germain will be able to rely on their rock-solid defence, who have conceded just three goals in nine games since the beginning of the league campaign, including six clean sheets. It’s the second-best defensive start to a season for the club from the capital, just behind the 1996-97 campaign in which they conceded just two goals in the first nine games. That same record would be equalled if the Parisians can keep a clean sheet against the Rennais.

Paris Saint-Germain have already used 29 different players in just nine league games, having suffered a plethora of injuries since the start of the season. Again, it looks like Thomas Tuchel will play with a different starting eleven against Rennes. The club has used 30 or more players in a season on just four occasions: in 1984-1985 (32 players), in 2000-2001 (31 players), in 2018-2019 (30 players) and last season (31 players).