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Alexandre Lacazette is free to face Rennes in the second leg of the last-16 Europa League tie after his suspension was reduced on appeal.
Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette is free to face Rennes in the second leg of the last-16 Europa League tie after his suspension was reduced on appeal. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images
Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette is free to face Rennes in the second leg of the last-16 Europa League tie after his suspension was reduced on appeal. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images

Rennes admit surprise at Uefa reprieve for Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette

This article is more than 5 years old
Julien Stéphan questions strange timing of appeal decision
Lacazette had ban reduced from three games to two

Rennes manager Julien Stéphan has described Uefa’s behaviour as “bizarre” as he discovered that Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette – previously suspended – had his ban reduced in between the two legs of the Europa League last-16 tie. This comes after the game locations had been switched, robbing Rennes of home advantage for the second leg.

“The timing is rather surprising for everyone involved,” says Stéphan. “We didn’t think that he would be included up until yesterday evening. They have decided to reduce his sanction from three to two games and that is great for him. Now we are going to have to prepare with that in mind. The first thing that was a bit bizarre was changing the first and second leg, this is now the second thing that has happened that changes things. Hopefully there will not be any more surprises and the referee tomorrow will be great.”

Rennes arrive in London hoping not only to protect the 3-1 lead they crafted in the first leg, but even to extend it. “Can we win? I don’t know but we do want to score a goal. We are here with the ambition to score at least one. If we just want to defend we are going to be in a lot of trouble,” he suggests. “We saw what happened with Atlético Madrid [at Juventus on Tuesday], they won 2-0 [in the first leg] but had no choice but to suffer for 90 minutes. We want to avoid this, we know it is going to be difficult because at the Emirates it is always an intense game, but we are ambitious.”

Lacazette’s inclusion gives Arsenal additional firepower and Unai Emery emphasises that it gives his team a boost. “The news is positive for us,” he says. “Our demand for our best performance is very high. We need to be together, to play with high emotion, but taking clever decisions on the pitch. We want to show tomorrow can be different.”

Lucas Torreira outlined his confidence that Arsenal have the firepower to overturn Rennes advantage and urges the team’s attacking players to lead the charge. “We all know how important Alex Lacazette is to the group,” he says. “The more players we have available the better as we have some quality players in midfield and up top and let’s hope we can make that danger pay. We had this in the last round where we had to turn the tie around. We have complete faith and confidence we will do the job and go through.”

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