Juventus vs Rennes Preview: Spalletti’s “Maturity Test”, a League-Phase Leader With Seven Goals, and a French Side That Has Never Won in Italy
Two clubs arrive in Turin off humbling weekends and one of them is top of the Europa League table. Juventus have won both league-phase matches, scored seven and sit first, but they were beaten 3-0 at home by Lazio four days ago and are eighth in Serie A after seven games. Rennes drew at Sturm Graz, beat OFI Crete and sit a point off the top of Ligue 1 — then lost 4-3 at Paris FC. Luciano Spalletti has called Thursday a maturity test, and the evidence of the last four days suggests he has a point.
A Perfect European Record Sitting on Top of a Leaky Week
The split in Juventus’ season is stark enough that Spalletti was asked to explain it on the eve of the game. In Europe they opened with a 5-0 win over NEC Nijmegen and then came from behind to beat Celta Vigo 2-1 away, Randal Kolo Muani scoring late. Seven goals in two matches makes them joint-highest scorers in the competition, and eight across their first three would be their best start to a major European campaign since 2003-04, when they managed it in the Champions League against Galatasaray, Olympiacos and Real Sociedad.
In Serie A the same squad is eighth after seven rounds. Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Lazio was the loudest evidence yet: Juventus had somewhere between 56 and 58 per cent of the ball and managed two shots on target, and the three goals came from a short-corner routine and two counter-attacks into an exposed rest defence. They have now lost two of their last five league games at the Allianz Stadium — as many as they had lost in their previous 44 top-flight matches there.
Set against that, the European home record is excellent: four straight wins in major European competition at this ground, twelve goals scored and two conceded, their longest such run since a six-match stretch between November 2020 and December 2021. Which version of Juventus turns up on Thursday is the entire question.
Rennes: Compact in Europe, Wide Open in Ligue 1
Rennes have taken four points from two league-phase fixtures — a goalless draw away at Sturm Graz and a 2-1 home win over OFI Crete in which they had to come from behind. The defensive numbers in this competition are remarkable: they have faced only thirteen shots across their two matches, the fewest of any side in the league phase.
Their league form tells a different story. Franck Haise’s team have won four of seven, sit sixth and are a point off the top, but Sunday’s trip to Paris FC ended 4-3 against them despite Esteban Lepaul scoring a hat-trick of penalties. They have shipped goals freely of late — at least three in four of their last six away matches — and are winless in their last three trips, losing two. Spalletti’s scouting report was straightforward: Rennes are “strong on the open field and physically”, they have fast attackers, and they are riding enthusiasm from a good start to the season.
Head-to-Head: Two Legs, One Trophy, Twenty-Seven Years Ago
| Date | Competition | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1999, 2nd leg | UEFA Intertoto Cup, final | Rennes 2-2 Juventus | France |
| Aug 1999, 1st leg | UEFA Intertoto Cup, final | Juventus 2-0 Rennes | Italy |
These clubs have met only twice in competitive football: the two legs of the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup final, which Juventus won 4-2 on aggregate (2-0 at home, 2-2 away). Juventus were one of that year’s three Intertoto winners alongside West Ham United and Montpellier. Because the sample is two matches from 1999, the more useful comparison is current form. Juventus in the league phase: 5-0 v NEC, 2-1 at Celta Vigo. Rennes in the league phase: 0-0 at Sturm Graz, 2-1 v OFI Crete. One further note in the home side’s favour: Rennes have lost all four of their European away matches in Italy, against Juventus, Udinese, Lazio and Milan.
Three Things That Will Decide It
1. Juventus’ rest defence against Rennes’ first pass
The Lazio goals came from transitions, not sustained pressure, and Spalletti has already identified Rennes’ strength as the open field. With Douglas Luiz and Pape Matar Sarr likely to be the pair asked to screen, and with Juventus missing captain Manuel Locatelli, the positions behind the ball when Juventus commit full-backs are the obvious fault line. Rennes’ wide players, Ludovic Blas and Mousa Al-Tamari, are built to run into exactly that space.
2. Woltemade’s run and the eight-goal milestone
Nick Woltemade has scored in each of Juventus’ first two league-phase matches. A third would make him the first Juventus player this century to score in his first three major European main-draw appearances for the club. Kolo Muani is the alternative up front and has been involved in five goals across his last five appearances in the Champions League and Europa League, so Spalletti has two live options for a forward line that is already short of Kenan Yıldız and Francisco Conceição.
3. Rennes without the league’s leading scorer
Lepaul hurt his ankle late in the defeat at Paris FC and is expected to miss the trip, with Boulaye Dia set to lead the line. That removes the man Spalletti singled out as Ligue 1’s top scorer, and Rennes have won none of their last three away matches in any competition. Against that, they have been the hardest team in this competition to shoot at, and Blas has a habit of scoring late — five of his last seven club goals have come after the seventieth minute.
Expected Line-ups
Neither club had confirmed a starting eleven at the time of writing. The names below follow the most widely reported projected sides; treat both as provisional and check the team sheets about an hour before kick-off. Reporting differs in several positions, noted underneath.
Juventus
- GK Guglielmo Vicario
- DF Pierre Kalulu, Federico Gatti, Lloyd Kelly
- MF Zeki Çelik, Douglas Luiz, Pape Matar Sarr, Andrea Cambiaso
- AM Weston McKennie, Kerim Alajbegović
- ST Nick Woltemade
Out: Kenan Yıldız (broken foot), Francisco Conceição (shoulder injury sustained against Lazio, feared out until the November break), Khéphren Thuram (knee), Manuel Locatelli (meniscus), Jeff Ekhator (thigh), Arkadiusz Milik and Kamil Grabara (knee). Bremer is expected to captain the side with Locatelli out.
Stade Rennais
- GK Brice Samba
- DF Przemysław Frankowski, Charlie Cresswell, Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal, Mahamadou Nagida
- MF Sebastian Szymański, Valentin Rongier, Mahdi Camara
- FW Ludovic Blas, Boulaye Dia, Mousa Al-Tamari
Out or doubtful: Esteban Lepaul (ankle, expected to miss out). Dia takes the centre-forward role in his place. Rongier is the holding presence in front of a back four that has faced the fewest shots in the league phase so far.
Where reporting differs: previews split three ways on Juventus’ back line — Kalulu, Gatti and Kelly in one, Kalulu, Bremer and Jhon Lucumí in another, and a flat back four in a third — and on whether Woltemade or Kolo Muani starts up front. On the Rennes side, one projected eleven uses Bryan Reynolds at right-back instead of Frankowski, and another starts Issa Soumaré in place of Al-Tamari. There is also a difference of opinion on whether Spalletti will be on the touchline after serving a domestic suspension picked up with his red card at Cagliari; most reporting expects him back in the dugout. We have not picked a side in any of those arguments.
Key Battles
Woltemade against Cresswell
An English centre-back against the striker who has scored in both of Juventus’ league-phase matches. Cresswell is the one asked to deal with crosses from the right and with a forward who wants to run the channel, and Woltemade’s height is precisely the route Juventus use when the wide players cannot beat a settled block.
Douglas Luiz and Sarr against Rongier
Without Locatelli, Juventus’ midfield balance falls to Luiz and Sarr, and their job is as much about what happens behind them as in front. Rongier’s role is to blunt the first pass into Kolo Muani or Woltemade and force Juventus wide. If Luiz can turn and play forward early, Rennes’ low-shot-count defence gets tested for the first time in this competition.
Al-Tamari and Blas against Juventus’ wing-backs
Both of Rennes’ wide forwards want to attack the space a committed wing-back leaves behind. Çelik and Cambiaso will spend the evening deciding whether to go or stay, and Lazio’s third goal showed exactly what happens when the decision is wrong.
Kit Note: Juventus and Rennes
Juventus’ rail runs from the current home, away and third shirts through the player-edition home shirt to the women’s and kids’ home shirts. Rennes’ carries the new 2026/27 home and away shirts plus the 125th-anniversary playershirt. Everything below is live in the shop and priced the same across every size of a given shirt.
Juventus — the current home, away and third shirts, the player-edition home shirt, plus the women’s and kids’ home shirts
Swipe to browse 6 Juventus jerseys
Stade Rennais — the new 2026/27 home and away shirts, and the 125th-anniversary playershirt
Swipe to browse 3 Rennes jerseys
