Ligue 1: Bastia remain in good form with 1-0 victory over Rennes

Ten-man Bastia maintained their late-season revival and ended Rennes' six-match unbeaten run with a 1-0 victory in their Ligue 1 mid-table clash.

The visitors had Francois Kamano sent off two minutes before half-time following a second yellow card for a dangerous tackle from behind on Paul-Georges Ntep and Rennes missed a penalty before Gael Danic struck the winner on 78 minutes.

Bastia had clawed themselves out of the relegation battle on the back of consecutive victories over Evian and St Etienne and they began in confident mood.

In the first dangerous raid of the match, a Kamano cross to the far post enabled Giovanni Sio to chest the ball down and produce a left-foot volley which forced a reflex save from Rennes goalkeeper Benoit Costil.

As Rennes came more into the game, a Cheikh M'Bengue shot was deflected away from its target by the boot of visiting keeper Alphonse Areola and defender Mathieu Peybernes was forced to clear off the line to deny Ola Toivonen after he had lobbed the ball over the head of Areola.

Bastia hung on until half-time following Kamano's red card and they went close to opening the scoring on 53 minutes when Danic curled a right-footed free-kick towards goal only for Costil to block the ball.

Rennes looked sure to score when Ntep crossed towards goal and Toivonen volleyed from inside the penalty area. Areola managed to fist the ball away but only to Kamil Grosicki whose volley bounced back off the post.

A handball by Guillaume Gillet inside the area gave Ntep a glorious chance to open the scoring with the penalty but Areola stretched out to punch his right-footed shot away and Toivonen then hit the post with a volley.

The breakthrough finally came 12 minutes from the end when Danic ran on to Sio's through-ball 30 yards out and he fired a low right-foot shot that went into the corner.