Rennes have sealed a home 4-2 win over newly-relegated Angers on Sunday for Ligue 1 game-week 33. However, it was not plain sailing for the Brittany side, who needed a win to maintain their hopes of qualifying for an European competition next season. Bottom-placed Angers had opened the scoring and restored parity after going 2-1 down. After Jérémy Doku gave Rennes their lead back, Ibrahima Niane thought he had equalised for the visitors, but the goal was disallowed following a handball offence from Jean-Mattéo Bahoya.
During the VAR check, Rennes head coach Bruno Genesio was seen giving Arthur Theate a talking-to. The Belgian international centre-back was deemed to be at fault for the disallowed goal, and he reportedly did not take that too well.
According to Amazon Prime Video Sport, the pair had a heated exchange on the touchline with “strong words” being heard. The former Lyon manager was not impressed and consequently subbed Theate off in favour of youth product Jeanuël Belocian. Prime Video Sport reports that Theate, once sitting on the Rennes bench, was heard saying “he did not respect me.“
Genesio didn’t deny what happened when speaking to the media after the game. “It happens. As long as there are heated exchanges, it means there’s life and that we want to win. I prefer that to players who don’t react,” the Rennes coach said to Ouest-France.
GFFN | Bastien Cheval
