A huge confidence boost for Nick Woltemade with Juventus.

The Newcastle United striker playing a key role as the Serie A team totally turned around their latest match.

Juventus were trailing at the break away to Celta Vigo in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Then on 58 minutes Nick Woltemade seized on a defender’s mistake to volley home and get Juventus back in the game.

It has all been ridiculously over the top as the Italian media have made the Newcastle United loan player a scapegoat for Juventus’ average start to the season, sixth in the table and only nine goals scored by Juve in six league matches.

This Nick Woltemade criticism (blindly parroted by the UK media) especially ludicrous considering Big Nick hasn’t yet had a chance to start a Serie A match, only 80 minutes in sub appearances.

Now the loan striker has two goals from two starts in the Europa League for Juventus though.

A big issue has been the fact that Juventus boss Luciano Spalletti has so far been unwilling to play strikers Kolo Muani and Nick Woltemade together. Although ahead of kick-off last night, Spalletti insisted that he would/could be prepared to do so, even possibly from the start against Celta Vigo.

That didn’t happen but Kolo Muani did come off the bench six minutes after Woltemade’s equaliser and the pair played together until the final whistle. They combined well in that time with Nick Woltemade unselfishly linking play up and the perfect ending when Kolo Muani completed the fightback with the winning goal in added time.

Nick Woltemade was a happy man after the final whistle and told Italian media: “I think that this was my best game for Juve. Obviously I can do better but I am happy with the goal, a goal always helps confidence. Important for a striker and I want to keep getting stronger. Of course I like playing with Kolo. When there is just one centre-forward, the defenders can focus on just marking one, it is easier for them, whereas with two of us we can divide up the space more. I am not the coach though and I trust my coach, I think any choice he makes will be the right one. I am a good player, Kolo is a good player, so the decision is up to the coach, but as long as we keep scoring goals everyone will be happy.”

Nick Woltemade pounces on Marcos Alonso’s mistake at the back and equalises for Juventus 💥

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Following the match, only two Juventus players got higher ratings from Goal than the Newcastle United loan star:

‘Nick Woltemade – 7/10
Nick Woltemade led the line with intelligence and was rewarded for his perseverance in the 59th minute, ghosting into the box to slot home the equaliser. It was a vital contribution that changed the complexion of the match when Juventus looked short of ideas.’

Not such a great night for a former Newcastle United defender…

‘Lloyd Kelly – 5/10
Kelly had a difficult evening at the heart of the defence. He was booked in the 54th minute for a tactical foul and generally looked uncomfortable dealing with Celta’s quick interplay through the central channel. He was replaced by Bremer in the 70th minute after a testing hour.’

Best of luck to Nick Woltemade and interesting to see what the Juventus boss does on Sunday with his two strikers, Juve are home to Lazio in Serie A.

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