Chelsea vs Rennes preview, team news, kick-off

Team news and stats ahead of Chelsea vs Rennes in the Champions League group stage on Wednesday; kick-off 8pm.

Team news

Christian Pulisic will miss Chelsea's Champions League clash with Rennes at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

The USA forward tweaked his hamstring in the warm-up at Burnley on Saturday, and was withdrawn from the Blues' 3-0 Premier League win.

Pulisic has avoided serious injury, however, with boss Frank Lampard hoping to have him back in action soon.

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Rennes will be without Daniele Rugani and Eduardo Camavinga, who have both being ruled out through injury.

However, they are boosted by the return of midfielder Steven Nzonzi after serving a suspension.

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Rennes at a glance

The coach: Julien Stephan was part of Rennes' coaching staff before stepping up to replace Sabri Lamouchi as boss in December 2018. They won the Coupe de France that season and third place in Ligue 1 last term has taken them into this first Champions League campaign.

European pedigree: Rennes' Champions League bow this term comes after Europa League campaigns in each of the last two seasons - getting to the last 16 in 2018-19 was their best run in the competition.

Form: Rennes' Group E matches to date have been a 1-1 home draw with Krasnodar and 1-0 loss at Sevilla. They are third in Ligue 1 having lost only one of nine fixtures and won five of them.

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How to follow

Follow Chelsea vs Rennes with our dedicated live blog across Sky Sports' digital platforms and on Gillette Soccer Special, live on Sky Sport News and Sky Sports Premier League from 7pm.

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Opta stats

• Chelsea and Rennes have never previously faced in any competition.
• Chelsea have lost just one of their nine home UEFA Champions League games against French sides (W5 D3), a 2-1 defeat against Paris SG in March 2016.
• Rennes have lost their two away European games in England - in August 2001, they were beaten 1-0 by Aston Villa in the Intertoto Cup and in March 2019 they lost 3-0 to Arsenal in the UEFA Europa League.
• Chelsea have only suffered one defeat in their previous 15 home games in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (0-1 v Valencia last season), winning nine and drawing the other five games in this run.
• Rennes are on a five-game losing streak away from home in major European competitions (excl. qualifiers), with four of the defeats in this run coming since the start of last season).
• Chelsea are yet to concede a goal in the UEFA Champions League this season, while they last started a campaign with three consecutive clean sheets in the group stage in 2009-10, under Carlo Ancelotti.
• Rennes have only kept one clean sheet in their last 12 games across all European competitions (2-0 v Lazio in the UEFA Europa League last season), conceding 18 goals in total in this run.
• Chelsea's Timo Werner has been directly involved in 11 goals in his last 13 appearances in the UEFA Champions League (eight goals and three assists), including six goals in the most recent six (three goals and three assists).
• Rennes forward Serhou Guirassy has scored three goals in his last five games in major European competitions (excl. qualifiers), including his team's only goal in the UEFA Champions League so far this season (v FK Krasnodar).
• Hakim Ziyech scored his first goal for Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League on MD2 (v FK Krasnodar), while he could become just the third player to score on his first two starts for the club in the competition, after Didier Drogba in 2004 and Daniel Sturridge in 2010.

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