For the third time in as many outings in Europe this season, the Europa League will try and be Juventus’ reprieve from the struggles that they are currently dealing with domestically. And it’s especially true this time around when you consider what happened all of three days ago on the same field in which they will step out onto for their latest Thursday night adventure.
Of course, when you recall what Juventus did — or didn’t — do against Lazio on Sunday, who knows how much that will carry over and
disrupt whatever Europa League mojo Luciano Spalletti’s squad may have.
Juve have won their two European fixtures this season in very different kind of fashion. What will come of the third of it will be determined during the early window on Thursday night against French side Stade Rennais, who themselves are coming off a victory in the Europa League a week ago. But Juventus, the team that currently sits atop the Europa League league phase table, has the chance to make it three wins in three to begin the European campaign — which, based on their Serie A form, is probably a bit of a surprise to actually see and believe that it’s real.
Yet, they are top of the Europa League table.
It’s true, it’s true!
But the overwhelming feeling about how things went against Lazio is suddenly much more of the norm rather than any sort of positive vibes the beginning of the Europa League campaign may have brought in the opening 180 minutes of the league phase. The Europa League has been a competition where Spalletti has chosen to rotate his squad and, in his own words, give time to players who haven’t played as much in the league so far this season. Does that reflect how he is approaching both competitions? Maybe, but it’s also a reflection of the two teams Juve have played in Europe to begin the league phase, NEC Nijmegen and Celta Vigo.
Now, when it comes to Stade Rennais, it is a case where some might think they fall somewhere in the middle of the two teams — and especially with the news that Ligue 1’s leading goal scorer, Estéban Lepaul, will miss out on Thursday night’s game due to an ankle injury after scoring a hat trick (of penalties) over the weekend in a 4-3 loss against Paris FC. Stade Rennais sit in sixth place in Ligue 1 so far this season — albeit one point behind the four-team group of teams tied at 14 points atop the table. Their only Europa League win this season has come against European heavyweight OPI last week.
Yeah, that is not overwhelmingly impressive, but also nothing to make you think that they would also be a complete pushover like we saw against NEC before the international break as Juve actually scored five whole goals in a single game. So it’s a second straight tough matchup in Europe for a struggling Juventus side that is looking for any sign of positive momentum coming off a frustrating weekend domestically.
But, again, Juve just had a performance against Lazio over the weekend in which they didn’t look very good in multiple facets — and the kind of areas of the field in which that is nothing new. Juve’s midfield pivot of Douglas Luiz and Pape Matar Sarr was not very good. Juve’s chance creation wasn’t very good, either, as they finished with all of nine shots and their two shots on the Lazio goal were not all that challenging to save. Then there’s the defensive miscues that allowed Lazio to do what they’ve been doing all season in building their 3-0 lead.
So now we’re looking to see what Juve do as a response — again.
As Randal Kolo Muani side in the pre-match press conference, “it’s great to have another chance straight away to put it behind us, look ahead and show what we’re capable of on the pitch.” And while that’s a true statement even though it probably falls into some of the football cliché verbiage, it’s the last part that we still don’t know for sure about what they’re actually capable of doing. They’re still without some of their most important players and won’t see them return until November or December at the earliest.
It’s hard to really know what Spalletti can do outside of a serious tactical switch and approach to the game to try and get Juventus going again. Without the likes of those who are out injured, it may just be impossible to think they can have any sort of consistent winning run for the next couple of months still. Clearly right now it’s the opposite of a winning run — it’s back and forth between dropped points and wins in Europe, with a Serie A win sometimes sprinkled in for a team that currently sits in eighth place in the league standings.
Maybe the Europa League proves to be the safe haven and return to a winning environment again this week. Or maybe it will be more of the same from what we’ve seen the last couple of games against Serie A opposition. At this point, I’m probably leaning one way more than the other — and you can probably guess which direction that is without much time to deliberate. Either way, Juventus need a win both in terms of trying to maintain their spot atop the Europa League table, simply their ability to lock up a spot in the top eight come January and for the overall feeling among the group of players who are under heavy criticism.
The last thing Juve need is another news cycle or two where they were hit from all angles of the Italian press — and rightfully so — because of how they played over the weekend. This squad needs some good to come its way soon, or else the October spin into potential chaos could happen for a second straight year.
TEAM NEWS
- Because it is simple Juventus math this season, as one player comes back from injury, another must now suffer an injury. That happened over the weekend as Jérémie Boga came back from injury only to see Francisco Conceição suffer a separated shoulder that will keep him out through the November international break. Good times, right?
- That means Conceição is added to an injury list that already includes Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Khephren Thuram, Jeff Ekhator and Kamil Grabara.
- As is the case for every Europa League league phase game this season, Juventus will also be without Edon Zhegrova because he was not included in the squad list. Which looks even worse of a decision now that Conceição is out for the next two Europa League games at least.
- Spalletti did reveal the big lineup change in his pre-match press conference: Kolo Muani and Nick Woltemade will both start up front against Stade Rennais on Thursday night. Rather than this being the second-half move that Spalletti has used so far this season, it will now be taking place from the opening kickoff.
- Other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot of team news thrown out there by Spalletti considering we can pretty much guess who is out and who will likely be in the starting lineup considering he has done a fair bit of rotation in the Europa League thus far.
- Spalletti did say this that feels like a constant theme these days at Juventus: “For tomorrow, I’m asking the team to think things through more, to be less impulsive and less individualistic. We need to be more of a team, more of a unit, more united.”
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Ever since coming back from injury last month, Weston McKennie has not been looking like his normal self. Or at least the one we saw for much of last season once Spalletti took over as manager.
He is still doing his play-everywhere-at-any-time kind of thing that he has become incredibly well known for, but the effectiveness of said play has not exactly been up to the standard we’ve come to know from him the last few years.
And as these days of Juventus in which they are struggling for any sort of consistently positive form, having the Weston of a year or two back again sure would be nice, wouldn’t it?
With Spalletti coming out and saying that both Kolo Muani and Woltemade will be in the starting lineup on Thursday night, where things go in terms of a formation is now a liiiiiiiitle bit of an unknown. Is it going to be a 3-5-2 to accommodate both of the strikers? Or will it be the kind of formation that is 3-4-2-1 or 4-2-3-1 where Kolo Muani will line up in more of a wide position and Woltemade is in the No. 9 spot?
With Conceição injured and Zhegrova not in the Europa League squad list, a formation that won’t rely totally on wide attacking players feels like the play here. Plus you throw in how much somebody like Nico González has played since he came into the starting lineup on a regular basis a month ago, it’s another point for the 3-5-2, ain’t it?
So this is the long way of asking this: Where does McKennie fit into all of this?
We know Juventus’ midfield could use his energy and tenacity on defense. But more often than not as Spalletti has bounced between this three-man defense and his default 4-2-3-1, he’s either played behind the striker or out wide as a wingback. Those are two different kinds of roles, obviously, but ones that McKennie has bounced back and forth between and done so with great effectiveness under Spalletti.
Or at least last season he did. This season, however, has been a different story.
We don’t know how long it might take McKennie back to looking like the Wes of old … or even last season. But Juventus, especially in its current state, needs that version of McKennie back in the worst possible way. (Amongst plenty of other things, obviously.) The effort is still there, the running is still there, it’s some of the same things that he always does. But the end product just ain’t what it has been before — and that’s a pretty noticeable thing.
MATCH INFO
When: Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 5:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12:45 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Central time, 9:45 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: CBS Sports Network, TUDN USA (United States); TNT Sports 5 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 252 (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, Univision NOW, UniMás, TUDN app, TUDN.com (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); HBO Max (United Kingdom); Sky GO Italia, NOW TV (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky. Engage with Black & White & Read All Over’s match threads from your phone with the new SB Nation app. Commenting and interacting with your communities is easier than ever before with the Game Chat feature. The app is available currently in the U.S. on iOS and Android devices.
