Rennes will look to extend their positive home record in the 2024-25 Ligue 1 season when they take on unbeaten Lens at Roazhon Park in the Derby du Nord on Saturday evening.

Match preview：

After experiencing their worst league placement since 2018-19 last term, Rennes have not exactly made the start to the new season that they would have wanted to.

Following an impressive 3-0 win over Lyon on opening weekend, Les Rennais suffered back-to-back defeats away to Strasbourg and Reims, but returned to winning ways after the international break, overcoming Montpellier 3-0.

The one major positive for Julien Stephan, though, is that both his side's victories came in their two home games this season, during which they scored six goals, which is the second-best home tally in the league behind Paris Saint-Germain's nine.

Notably, the Red and Blacks have now scored in every league match at Roazhon Park since Stephan arrived in Rennes in mid-November last year (12 games in total).

When these two met last, the match ended in a 1-1 draw at this venue with Angelo Fulgini and Ibrahim Salah's goals cancelling each other out. That result extended Rennes' winless run against this opponent to eight in a row, including four draws and four losses.

Meanwhile, Lens have laid a solid platform this season, taking eight points from their first four league games, making them one of only four sides still unbeaten heading into gameweek five.

The Blood and Gold kicked off the new campaign with consecutive wins over Angers and Brest, stole a late point away to Monaco ahead of the international break, and played out a goalless draw to Lyon last week.

With those results, combined with a win and two draws over their final three games last season, Lens now have the joint-longest active unbeaten streak in the top flight (7) alongside Monaco.

The one major stain on their otherwise impressive performance this season, though, was their 2-0 second-leg Conference League qualifier defeat to Panathinaikos, which denied them European football this season.

Still, new boss Will Still has undoubtedly earned a fair few admirers over the early stages of the season, and he now has an opportunity to lead his side to a third unbeaten match on the road, something they have not achieved since between January and February this year.

Player injuries:

Rennes

40 (Goalkeeper) D. Almadar

20 (right winger) Andres Gomez

Lens

19 (right midfielder) Jimmy Cabot

4 (Central Defender) Kevin Denso

23 (Central Midfielder) Neil Ainaoui

possible starting lineup: