Guglielmo Vicario insists Juventus tried everything to beat Rennes, while Nick Woltemade revealed he asked Randal Kolo Muani’s permission before taking the penalty that rescued a 2-2 draw.
With quotes via TuttoMercatoWeb and Calciomercato.com, both players spoke to Sky Sport Italia after Thursday’s Europa League game in Turin. “It’s definitely very bitter, given how much we produced in the second half,” Vicario said. “We deserved to win. It didn’t happen, and now we have to recover and think about Lecce.”
Juventus went ahead through Zeki Çelik after five minutes, but Mousa Al-Taamari equalised and Boulaye Dia put Rennes ahead from the spot before half-time. Woltemade levelled with a second-half penalty, and Jhon Lucumí’s late winner was ruled out for offside by VAR.
Juventus 2-2 Rennes – Woltemade: ‘I politely asked Kolo Muani for the penalty’
Woltemade, who also set up Çelik’s opener, explained how he ended up on penalty duty.
“I politely asked Kolo Muani if I could take the penalty, and he told me to go ahead. It went well and I scored,” he said. “At the end I would have liked to get a third. The most important thing is to play a good game. Tonight I played with the right spirit, and we’ll carry on like that.”
According to Sky, he has now scored in each of his first three European appearances for Juventus, something only Darko Kovacevic and Roberto Baggio had done before him.
Thursday was the first time Spalletti started the German alongside Kolo Muani. “Kolo is an excellent striker. He can score goals and open up space for his teammates, and he helps me a lot,” Woltemade said. “It’s not my choice, and we have lots of good players, but there’s a good feeling and we hope to score plenty of goals together.”
Both players stressed the response after Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat to Lazio, after which captain Gleison Bremer criticised his teammates and Spalletti admitted he was no longer sure the squad were following him.
“We had to turn the page after Lazio and find positive energy, especially tonight,” Woltemade said. “We have quality players, and with this energy things will go well.”
Vicario, who made important saves to deny Mahamadou Nagida and Al-Taamari, agreed. “Rennes are a physical team. Overall, we tried everything we could to win. We’ll take the reaction and move on.”
“We came together and we were there on the pitch today,” he added. “Then a few situations went against us and made the difference. We have quality, and we have to use it to win games.”