Paris FC 4-3 Rennes: Esteban Lepaul scores a hat-trick of penalties and still loses

Esteban Lepaul scored three times for Rennes at the Stade Jean-Bouin — all three from the penalty spot — and finished on the losing side anyway. Maxime López put Paris FC ahead twice and Lassine Sinayoko added a goal and a stoppage-time penalty of his own, as the hosts won a seven-goal thriller 4-3.

Four penalties, seven goals

Maxime López opened the scoring in the 14th minute, finished off a Lassine Sinayoko pass, before Lepaul pulled Rennes level from the spot in the 29th. López restored the lead in the first minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half, set up by Sinayoko for the second time. Lepaul drew Rennes level again from another penalty in the 74th minute, only for Sinayoko himself to make it 3-2 two minutes later. Lepaul completed his hat-trick — all three penalties — in the 88th minute to tie it at 3-3, before Sinayoko won and converted a fourth Paris FC penalty in the seventh minute of stoppage time to settle it at 4-3.

• 14' — Maxime López (Paris FC), assisted by Lassine Sinayoko
• 29' — Esteban Lepaul (Rennes), penalty
• 45+4' — Maxime López (Paris FC), assisted by Lassine Sinayoko
• 74' — Esteban Lepaul (Rennes), penalty
• 76' — Lassine Sinayoko (Paris FC)
• 88' — Esteban Lepaul (Rennes), penalty
• 90+7' — Lassine Sinayoko (Paris FC), penalty

A card-filled first half for the visitors

Rennes picked up four yellow cards inside the opening 36 minutes — Przemyslaw Frankowski, Djaoui Cissé, Adrien Thomasson and Anthony Rouault all booked before the half-hour mark passed — a sign of how stretched the visitors' defence already was against a Paris FC side that finished with 9 shots on target to Rennes' 7, despite having less of the ball for long periods.

Line-ups

Paris FC move into the Champions League places

It is a second win in their last three for Paris FC, who had drawn with Lyon and beaten Strasbourg before a surprise 0-1 defeat at Lorient in the previous round. This result lifts them above that defeat and up to 3rd on 14 points — level with Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the top of the table, and inside the Champions League places on goal difference.

A costly first defeat of the month for Rennes

Rennes had won four of their previous five matches, including a 4-1 win over Auxerre last time out, with their only blemish in that run a 4-0 defeat at Lyon. Despite scoring three times here, they drop to 6th on 13 points, still in touching distance of the Conference League play-off place but conceding more goals, 14 in seven matches, than their position in the table suggests.