Juventus vs Rennes: Kolo Muani and Woltemade to start together for the first time

Thursday evening in Turin (6.45pm local time), Juventus host Stade Rennais on Europa League matchday 3 with a new front two: Luciano Spalletti starts Randal Kolo Muani and Nick Woltemade together for the first time. Top of the league phase with two wins from two, Juventus come from a 3-0 defeat to Lazio at the weekend and sit eighth in Serie A.

For Kolo Muani the fixture tastes of a return: seven years at Nantes between 2015 and 2022, a French Cup lifted in 2022 with Ludovic Blas and Quentin Merlin, both now at Rennes. “A special match, I wouldn’t quite say that, but yes, I do have my little Nantes heart,” he said at his pre-match press conference. He arrives in form, three goals and two assists in nine matches in all competitions, and expects an open game: in his view, Rennes have started the Europa League well and will not come to sit deep. The two clubs had not met since the Intertoto Cup in 1999, played in Cesena.

Without Lepaul, half of Rennes’s league goals are missing

Estéban Lepaul will miss Thursday’s game. He went off injured at Paris FC on Saturday, and he has seven of Rennes’s fifteen Ligue 1 goals. The wingers have scored none this season, four assists between them. Franck Haise is set to go back to a back five, a first under him at Rennes, with wing-backs such as Bryan Reynolds and Mahmadou Nagida. “I don’t stop anyone from dribbling,” he said. Up front, Boulaye Dia carries the momentum: a two-minute double against Auxerre on 11 October (4-1).

Two games in four days

Three days after Turin, Rennes host Strasbourg at Roazhon Park on Sunday (6.15pm French time), matchday 8 in Ligue 1. Sixth on 13 points, Rennes are priced around 1.79 with 1xbet, with Strasbourg, fourteenth on 7 points, at 4.36. No return date has been given for Lepaul: on Sunday evening, the Rennes attack will play without him.