Bruno Genesio managed Rennes for two and a half years, and they beat his Marseille side to go top
Adrien Thomasson’s 52nd-minute goal gave Rennes a 1-0 win at Roazhon Park and sent Franck Haise’s side to the top of Ligue 1. It is Marseille’s third defeat in a row.
Sep 12, 2026
Bruno Genesio spent two and a half years as Rennes manager. He went back to Roazhon Park on Friday night as Marseille’s, watched his side play the better football for 45 minutes, and left having lost 1-0. It is Marseille’s third defeat in a row, and Rennes are top of Ligue 1.
Adrien Thomasson scored it in the 52nd minute. Mousa Al-Tamari, on as a substitute, headed a ball back across the six-yard box and Thomasson turned it in from close range.
A first goal for the club, and a fiftieth in the league
Thomasson is 32 and has been scoring in Ligue 1 since Evian, through Nantes, Strasbourg and three and a half years at Lens. This was his 50th in France’s top division and, oddly, his first for Rennes, who signed him this summer. He nearly had a second when a shot came back off the crossbar.
Al-Tamari changed the game when he came on. Rennes had not looked like scoring before that, and within minutes of his introduction they had the goal and the pace to hold Marseille off.
Marseille played well and scored nothing, again
The first half belonged to the visitors. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg ran the midfield, the wide players got in behind, and Marseille kept creating openings without putting one away. Angel Gomes passed up a good chance shortly before Rennes scored, which is the kind of sequence that decides these games.
Igor Paixao got a header on target after the break and it came off the Rennes defender Anthony Rouault and onto the woodwork. Brice Samba dealt with the rest. Rennes kept their first clean sheet of the season, and their goalkeeper is the reason why.
Three points in four matches for Genesio
Marseille opened the season by beating Strasbourg 4-0 at the Velodrome. Since then they have lost at Monaco, lost again, and now lost at Rennes. That leaves them 11th, with three points from four matches and a goal difference of exactly zero.
Genesio took the job on 1 July. The 4-0 looked like the right appointment. Four matchdays in, his side have been beaten by a Monaco team that has won everything it has played and by a Rennes side that needed 52 minutes and a substitute to find a goal.
Rennes are top, and might not be by Saturday night
Ten points from four matches, three wins and a draw, and the only points Rennes have dropped came on the opening weekend against PSG. They led that one 2-0 before Ferran Torres scored twice after the hour. Franck Haise has them ahead of everyone on a goal difference of plus three.
That is provisional. Monaco have won all three of their matches and sit on nine points, and they play at Strasbourg on Saturday. Win there and they go back above Rennes before the weekend is out.