Rennes vs. Leicester City Predictions: The hosts to be amongst the goals in the Europa Conference

An inform Rennes side have a two goal deficit to overturn on Thursday night as they welcome Leicester City to Roazhon Park in Brittany. We've asked Tom Winch to preview this Europa Conference League clash and provide us with his best two bets.

An inform Rennes side have a two goal deficit to overturn on Thursday night as they welcome Leicester City to Roazhon Park in Brittany. 

The French side dominated the opening leg early on with Gaetan Laborde firing an early strike towards Kasper Schmeichel’s goal. It was the veteran, Marc Albrighton who opened the scoring in spectacular fashion half an hour in. Substitute Kelechi Iheanacho put the game to bed in injury time after he slotted his shot coolly past Alfred Gomis.

Rennes have been impressive at home in recent weeks, four straight wins in Ligue 1 and come into this game after hitting four past Lyon on Sunday. Bruno Génésio’s side have scored 57 times in the league, just two behind top scorers, PSG. 

Brendan Rodgers will know that this tie isn’t over by any means; the Foxes have conceded 27 goals away from the King Power in the Premier League this campaign. A prime reason being that plenty of defensive players have been absent for large parts of the season. 

The hosts were drawn into group G alongside Slovenian side, Mura, Vitesse and Tottenham, where they finished in top spot. Rennes scored six goals across the three home ties, which saw them draw 3-3 with the Dutch side and 2-2 with the North London club.

Given the task Rennes face it could lead to an eventful 90 minutes or possibly, even more. I don’t expect Leicester to come here and defend the lead with their defensive helplessness, but could quite easily hurt Rennes on the break. 

I like the look of Rennes, as stated earlier they’re in great form and have every chance to overturn the two goal deficit they find themselves in. Momentum is on the home team's side, players in attacking areas have all contributed with goals. In Rennes’ last four league games where they’ve been the home side they’ve scored 14 in total with at least two goals for in each.

When playing away from the King Power, Leicester have struggled to shut out their opponents. Arsenal, Liverpool x2, Wolves, Man City, Napoli, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Southampton have all scored twice or more when hosting the Foxes in more recent times. The last 11 outings for Leicester has seen them concede on multiple occasions nine times. 

Rennes to continue this trend in scoring over 1.5 goals is currently best priced @ 17/20 with William Hill. With Rennes on a strong run of goal scoring form they’ll definitely be confident against a lacklustre Leicester back line in what should be an entertaining clash come Thursday evening. 

Gaetan Laborde and Martin Terrier are the main goal scoring threats. The pair has scored 14 a piece in the French top flight. Laborde has been the standout in Rennes’ European success so far; he’s scored five times across six games in the Europa Conference League. Odds of 6/4 are being offered for the 27 year old Frenchman to find the back of the net on Thursday evening with Bet 365.