Time running out for Celtic and Rennes

Celtic FC and Stade Rennais FC are in need of a first Group I victory after drawing 1-1 in France on matchday three of the UEFA Europa League. Previous meetings • The sides met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday three. • Cha Du-Ri (31) put the ball past his own goalkeeper Fraser Forster to give Rennes the lead but a Joe Ledley header (70) evened the score. • In Rennes' only previous tie against Scottish opponents, they took on Celtic's Old Firm rivals Rangers FC in the 1971/72 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round; they lost 1-0 in Glasgow after a 1-1 draw in France. Rangers went on to win the competition, beating FC Dinamo Moskva 3-2 in the final at the Camp Nou. • Celtic's 13 games against French sides have ended W4 D2 L7 (W3 D1 L3 at home). They have lost three of their last four home matches against Ligue 1 opposition. Match background • Celtic are unbeaten in five European home games (four wins and a draw) since losing 1-0 to Hamburger SV in the UEFA Europa League group stage on 22 October 2009. • Rennes have lost all five of their UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage away games. This is their third campaign in this phase of the competition, having previously reached the group stage in 2005/06 and 2007/08. Team facts • Two former Rennes players have connections with Celtic: Stéphane Mahé (1997-2001) and Jean-Joël Perrier-Doumbé (2007-09), who scored the only goal in the 2007 Scottish Cup final, when Celtic beat Dunfermline Athletic FC. • Rennes' youth team features an 18-year-old Celtic fan, goalkeeper Niall Burdon. Born in Paris to a French mother and an Irish father, he said before the first leg: "Rennes might be the club that I'm signed to and who pay my wages, but Celtic are the club in my heart. My dream since I was small has been to play for them one day." • Once a player for SC Bastia in his native Corsica, Rennes coach Frédéric Antonetti took charge of Bastia (1994-98), AS Saint-Étienne (2001-04) and OGC Nice (2005-09) before being handed his current job in 2009. Prior to the current campaign, he had not featured in Europe since leading Bastia from the UEFA Intertoto Cup to the second round of the UEFA Cup in 1997/98. • Celtic boss Neil Lennon was capped 40 times as a midfielder by Northern Ireland. Initially a trainee at Manchester City FC, he made his name with Leicester City FC before moving to Celtic alongside his manager and countryman Martin O'Neill. He went on to win five league titles, three Scottish Cups and two league cups during his time as a player at Celtic (2000-07).