Rennes and Olympiacos Share Scoreless Draw Despite Hitting Posts Twice

There were posts, there were spectacular saves, and there was almost everything except goals. Rennes and Olympiacos played to a 0-0 draw at Roazhon Park, leaving both sides with mixed feelings: the Greek side remains unbeaten, while the French club picked up yet another draw in a competition where they've already stacked up several.

The match, part of the Europa League league phase, opened with all the intensity the fixture promised. Before the first minute was even up, Armando Gonzalez had already tested the crossbar with a header off a cross from Konstantinos Fortounis, and the warning sign proved accurate: in the 8th minute, Gustavo Puerta struck the right post with a shot, also assisted by Fortounis. Olympiacos came out the stronger side and made that clear through their chances, but Rennes answered with close calls of their own: Anthony Rouault in the 16th minute and Charlie Cresswell in the 22nd both tested the woodwork with headers that narrowly missed.

The first half was a constant back and forth of corners, off-target shots and fouls (eight alone in the first fifteen minutes), with Mousa Al Tamari standing out as one of the home side's main attacking threats: his shot in the 29th minute forced a spectacular diving save from the Greek goalkeeper toward the top corner. Minutes earlier, Sebastian Szymanski had also tried his luck from an almost impossible angle, narrowly missing the target. Despite all that action, the score remained level at the break.

Second Half: Same Script, Same Result

The second half didn't change the story. Olympiacos kept generating chances with Fortounis as their driving force (his presence shows up again and again in the match's assists and shots), while substitutes Roman Yaremchuk and Gelson Martins came on, with Martins testing the keeper with a header in the 67th minute that was met with another tight save toward the top corner. Rennes, with Al Tamari continuing to probe down the right and Valentin Rongier pushing into the box after coming on, created their own chances in the closing stretch, but neither his shot in the 85th minute nor the one in the 90th found the net.

Neither goal gave way, even though there were chances to settle it at almost any moment.

What the Numbers Say

Olympiacos had more of the ball and generated slightly more danger, though without turning it into a goal:

Our own expected goals estimate, calculated from the match's shots, also slightly favors the visiting side: 1.159 against Rennes' 0.567. Those numbers back up the sense that Olympiacos had the clearer chances, like the two posts and the saves into the top corner, even though the scoreboard ended goalless for both sides.

The result also departs from what we projected before kickoff: our model gave Olympiacos a 47% chance of winning, 29% for a draw, and just 24% for Rennes, with an expected total of 2.53 goals. The draw, the least likely of the three outcomes, ended up being exactly what happened.

What It Means in the Standings

In the standings, Olympiacos moves to 10 points from four matches played and holds onto first place, still without a defeat so far in the competition. Rennes, with the draw, now has 6 points from their four matches, with a record of one win and three draws, unbeaten but also lacking the finishing edge to win. The gap between the two sides in the table stands at 4 points after this round.

It was a match full of chances and short on certainties, one that leaves Olympiacos with their unbeaten run intact in the league phase and Rennes with the feeling that, between posts and saves, the goal keeps eluding them more than they deserve.