VAR leaves Juventus with a point

The decisive moment arrived in the 90th minute. Lucumí found the net at the Allianz Stadium, referee Morten Krogh went to the monitor, and the goal was disallowed for offside. Eight minutes of stoppage time followed, but Juventus could not retrieve the win a second time.

That left Luciano Spalletti’s side on seven points after three league-phase matches, which sounds steady enough until you remember the shape of the night. Juventus led early, fell behind by half-time, recovered through a penalty, then thought they had completed the turnaround only for the screen to intervene. There are draws that feel like a rescue and draws that feel like a small argument with reality. This was the second kind.

Zeki Çelik put Juventus ahead in the fifth minute from Woltemade’s pass. Rennes were level 10 minutes later when Bryan Reynolds set up Mousa Al-Tamari, and Juventus made the evening harder for themselves again before the break when Douglas Luiz was penalised for handball. Boulaye Dia converted the penalty in the 43rd minute to make it 2-1 to the visitors.

Juventus had enough of the ball to suggest control without ever really imposing it. JuveFC reported 54% possession and an expected-goals edge of 2.25 to 1.72 for the home side, yet Rennes still produced more shots and more efforts on target. That usually tells its own story: the game remained loose, and loose games are precisely where a side chasing reassurance tends to look least convincing.

The equaliser also came via a penalty. Reynolds blocked a Nico González header with his arm away from his body, VAR upheld the decision and Woltemade scored in the 67th minute. He finished with seven shots and two key passes, the kind of stat line that makes him impossible to ignore even on a frustrating night.

Juventus did have one more problem to carry away with them. Çelik, who had scored the opener, went off injured after 45 minutes in a squad already missing several players.

So the useful fact for Juventus is that they responded after the 3-0 loss to Lazio in their previous outing. The less comfortable one is that response still was not enough to secure the result. Woltemade gave them most of what they needed. The monitor took the rest away.