Caretaker boss Sébastien Tambouret made plenty of changes from Rennes’ defeat to Lens that proved to be the end of Habib Beye’s tenure, but kept faith with Esteban Lepaul, who almost repaid him within six minutes, as his strike from 25 yards clipped the outside of the post.
One of the recalled Rennes starters was Brice Samba, and it was his turn to show his worth in the 12th minute, when Ousmane Dembélé played Désiré Doué through, but the goalkeeper stood tall to deny Doué’s chip.
Les Parisiens looked to be slowly gaining the upper hand soon after the half-hour mark when Dembélé cut in from the right wing and forced Samba to bat away his curling strike, only for Musa Al-Taamari to show the Ballon d’Or winner exactly how it’s done two minutes later.
He chased a ball over the top down the right, cut inside Willian Pacho and planted the ball past Matvey Safonov for just his third Ligue 1 goal of the season.
Rennes retained their lead until half-time despite the best efforts of Nuno Mendes, who combined brilliantly with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to set up João Neves, but he couldn’t make firm contact from close range, and the ball trickled wide.
The home side spurned a brilliant chance to double their lead in the opening minute of the second half, but after Ilya Zabarnyi’s poor control sent Arnaud Nordin bearing down on goal, he could only steer the ball wide.
PSG had been let off the hook, but were not threatening enough at the other end, as Doué skewed an effort wide after good build-up play, while a key deflection took a Pacho header wide on the other side of the hour mark.
And Les Rouge et Noirs punished their opponents for their wastefulness, as with just over 20 minutes to play, a whipped Sebastian Szymański cross was attacked by Lepaul, who gave Safonov no chance with his header.
However, the game was back on again within seconds of the restart, as PSG moved the ball wide to Achraf Hakimi, and his deflected cross sat up nicely for Dembélé to nod home from six yards.
Luis Enrique’s side began to pepper the Rennes goal, but Gonçalo Ramos was denied by a superb Samba save, before Bradley Barcola danced through the defence, only to shoot wide.
In the final 10 minutes, Rennes sealed the points with a counter-attack, which resulted in Ludovic Blas squaring for Breel Embolo, who bundled the ball in off his midriff.
The victory also ends a four-match H2H losing run for Rennes, while it’s now just four wins in eight in all competitions for PSG.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Brice Samba (Stade Rennais)