Recap: Kalimuendo Scores Hat-Trick as Rennes' Attack Explodes

Stade Rennais delivered a stunning attacking display in their 5-0 win over Saint-Étienne on Saturday at Roazhon Park. Arnaud Kalimuendo stole the show with an impressive hat-trick, driving the home side’s dominant performance.

Mathieu Cafaro began the offensive output for Rennes when the Saint-Étienne midfielder received a red card in the 37th after a VAR review awarded a penalty to Jorge Sampaoli and his team.

Kalimuendo converted the penalty kick shot to give the host club a 1-0 lead, but Rennes quickly took advantage of playing with an extra man as Ludovic Blas scored in the first half stoppage time to take a 2-0 scoreline into halftime.

The contest would go from bad to worse for the ten-men Saint-Étienne, who conceded a third goal at the start of the second half as Amine Gouiri scored in the 53rd minute to give Les Rouge et Noirs a 3-0 lead.

Eight minutes later, Kalimuendo recorded his brace as Rennes increased their advantage to 4-0. The 22-year-old scored again in the 67th minute, converting his second penalty of the match and securing his hat-trick as the home side went up 5-0.

Speaking to beIN SPORTS, Gouiri reacted to Rennes' victory over Saint-Étienne and the effect that Sampaoli is having on the group after two matches.

"We’re not going to say that everything clicked; we’re not going to get carried away. But it’s true that it feels good to win, to score a lot of goals, and to keep a clean sheet again. The match was consistent in terms of our play.”

“However, we were helped by that red card, that incident in the game. We need to enjoy this but not get ahead of ourselves. We have to build on the positives to keep going. It’s good for confidence.

"We’ve only played two matches, so we’ll see over time. But he’s instilling in us the importance of playing, enjoying ourselves, moving the ball around, and playing our game. We have a very coherent tactical foundation, which was evident at the start of the match and throughout the game. We need to build on that. We’ll keep working to deliver these kinds of performances consistently."

The Stat: Arnaud Kalimuendo's Hat-Trick Performance

Kalimuendo is the first player to score a hat-trick against Saint-Étienne in Ligue 1 since Martin Terrier with Rennes on December 5, 2021, so the last two hat-tricks that Les Verts conceded have been back-to-back performances from SRFC players.

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