Abdoulaye Doucoure netted the only goal of the game in Rennes's 1-0 win at Bastia this evening to put his side into the fourth round of the Coupe de la Ligue.

The 22-year-old striker almost handed the visitors the lead inside the first minute, but Jesper Hansen saved the forward's shot with his feet.

The rest of the first half passed without any further goalmouth action, although Sylvain Armand was at full stretch to head away Mehdi Sbaa's dangerous cross on the stroke of half time as Bastia looked to equalise.

Mathieu Peybernes bravely got his head to a deep cross 10 minutes into the second half with Doucoure lurking on his shoulder, but there was nothing he could do to prevent the only goal of the game a few moments later.

At the end of a neat move down the right flank the ball was worked in to Doucoure, who swept it into the far corner from 15 yards to put Rennes 1-0 ahead.

Mehdi Zeffane thought that he had doubled Rennes's lead with 15 minutes remaining, but his curling shot was ruled out for offside.

Nonetheless, Bastia were unable to muster a shot of note in the dying stages as Rennes booked their place in the last 16.