‘DOUBT’ COULD DEFEAT BLUES HOW THEY HAVE FARED

JOHN CROSS

RENNES boss Julien Stephan believes Chelsea are one of the favourites to win the Champions League.

But Stephan, 40, taking charge of Rennes’ first Champions League campaign, says his players must make Chelsea “doubt themselves” if they are to cause an upset.

When asked if the Blues are one of the favourites, he said: “I’m convinced of it. They’ve invested millions, including on Thiago Silva, and have international players in every position.

“Chelsea and Sevilla are the two big teams in our group and we need to make them doubt themselves. To do that, we will have to raise our level.”

Chelsea and Rennes have never previously faced each other in any competition.

Chelsea have lost just one of their nine home

Champions League games against French sides (W5

D3), a 2-1 defeat against PSG in March 2016.

Rennes have lost their two away European games in England – beaten 1-0 by Aston Villa in the Intertoto Cup in August 2001, and in March 2019 a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Europa League.

Chelsea have suffered only one defeat in their previous 15 home games in the group stage of the Champions League (0-1 v Valencia last season), winning nine and drawing the other five games in this run.

Rennes are on a fivegame losing streak away from home in major European competitions (excluding qualifiers), with four of these defeats coming since the start of last season.

Chelsea are yet to concede a goal in the Champions League this season, while they last started a campaign with three consecutive clean sheets in the group stage in 2009- 10, under Carlo Ancelotti.

Rennes have kept only one clean sheet in their last 12 games across all European competitions (2-0 v Lazio in the Europa League last season), conceding 18 goals in total in this run.

Chelsea’s Timo Werner has been directly involved in 11 goals in his last 13 appearances in the Champions League (eight goals and three assists), including six goals in the most recent six (three goals and three assists).

Rennes forward Serhou Guirassy has scored three goals in his last five games in major European competitions (excluding qualifiers), including his team’s only goal in the Champions League so far this season (v FK Krasnodar).

Hakim Ziyech scored his first goal for Chelsea in the Champions League on MD2 (v FK Krasnodar), while he could become just the third player to score on his first two starts for the club in the competition, after Didier Drogba in 2004 and Daniel Sturridge in 2010.