Juventus fought back for a 2-2 draw with Stade Rennais, as Nick Woltemade converted a penalty and provided the assist for Zeki Celik, but Jhon Lucumi’s late winner was disallowed.
The Bianconeri were in dismal Serie A form coming off a 3-0 home defeat to Lazio, yet boasted a 100 per cent Europa League record after beating NEC 5-0 and completing a comeback 2-1 win away to Celta Vigo.
Francisco Conceicao, Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Jeff Ekhator and Kamil Grabara were injured, with Edon Zhegrova off the UEFA list. For the first time, Nick Woltemade and Randal Kolo Muani were started together. Rennes missed top scorer Esteban Lepaul with an ankle injury and switched to a three-man defence after a draw at Sturm Graz and 2-1 win over OFI Crete.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
It took just five minutes to break the deadlock, as Woltemade timed the slide-rule pass perfectly to send Zeki Celik down the right and spring the offside trap, beating Bryce Samba with an angled drive.
However, Rennes responded quickly as Bryan Reynolds was allowed to knock back a cross to the far post, finding Musa Al-Taamari to turn in from six yards and draw level.
Federico Gatti’s header was palmed away by a sensational Samba save from close range, but Weston McKennie had a remarkable double chance to score. First he was denied by Samba’s save, then somehow hit the upright on the rebound from point-blank range.
Moments later, Guglielmo Vicario made a tough save of his own on the well-placed Mahamadou Nagida volley at the far stick.
Rennes started taking more of the initiative and received a rather harsh penalty, when a corner was cleared as far as another Nagida volley and Douglas Luiz falling over landed with his arm charging it down. The referee spotted it immediately and awarded the spot-kick, which ex-Lazio striker Boulaye Dia converted by sending Vicario the wrong way.
Pierre Kalulu came on for the restart and nearly scored within four minutes, nodding the Andrea Cambiaso cross wide while clashing heads with Nagida.
Vicario had to make another save as Al-Taamari dribbled through defenders to cut inside from the left and shoot, then Cambiaso made up for the error that sparked the Rennes counter by intercepting the Nagida cross.
Nico Gonzalez was introduced on the hour mark, as Juve switched to four at the back, and the Argentine was decisive as his header down from a Douglas Luiz free kick struck Reynolds on the arm for a penalty. Woltemade converted straight down the middle to draw Juventus level.
It sparked the Bianconeri back into life, McKennie’s pull-back from the by-line for a Woltemade effort deflected wide, then a Teun Koopmeiners scorcher from distance straight at Samba.
Woltemade had two headers in quick succession from six yards, one deflected, the other wide on the resulting corner.
Juventus thought they had completed the turnaround at the 88th minute when a free kick was flicked on by Koopmeiners and took a series of ricochets to land kindly for Jhon Lucumi to drill in from 12 yards with a big deflection off Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal. However, VAR spotted Lucumi was offside when Koopmeiners made the initial flick and the referee decided it was enough to disallow the goal.
Rennes locked down into defence after that scare, only allowing a Woltemade shot on the turn charged down in the area.
Juventus 2-2 Rennes
Celik 6 (J), Al-Taamari 15 (R), Dia pen 43 (R), Woltemade pen 67 (J)
Player statistic
| Zeki Celik (Assist: Nick Woltemade) |
5' | |||
| 15' |  |
Mousa Al-Tamari (Assist: Bryan Reynolds) | ||
| Federico Gatti | 19' | |||
| 43' | Boulaye Dia |
| Nick Woltemade |  |
67' | ||
| 82' |  |
Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal |
