Before enjoying the action on the pitch in this evening’s big Champions League tie, see how many of these facts you know…

Changing scenery

Although this is our third away game against Juventus, it is only our second visit to the Allianz Stadium, known simply as Juventus Stadium for UEFA competitions, as they have moved around as new arenas opened for international sporting events. Their current bespoke football stadium is on the same site as the Stadio delle Alpi, which was created for the 1990 World Cup, but our first match in Turin was at the Stadio Olimpico, a venue constructed in 2006 to host the Winter Olympics and replace a stadium originally built for the 1934 World Cup.

On the bench

In all four of our previous competitive matches, Juventus have been led by a manager who has also sat in the Chelsea dugout. In 2009, the Bianconeri were coached by Claudio Ranieri, who led us to our first Champions League semi-final in 2004, and then in 2012 their manager was future Premier League winner Antonio Conte.

However, Conte wasn’t actually present on the bench for either of those group games, as he served a four-month touchline ban amidst allegations he had failed to report a match-fixing incident during his time as Siena boss, charges he was later cleared of in court. With assistant Angelo Alessio, who joined him at Stamford Bridge, also banned, the man in the dugout for both games was technical director Massimo Carrera.

Di Matteo’s last game

The first manager ever to win the Champions League with Chelsea, Roberto Di Matteo, took charge of his last Blues game in that same competition against Juventus. He had stepped up from assistant to manager the previous season as we won both the FA Cup and Champions League. However, his second campaign as Blues boss didn’t run so smoothly, and he left his role following a 3-0 defeat at Juventus Stadium in November, which left our chances of progression in Europe hanging by a thread and out of our hands. Indeed, Juve’s win over Shaktar Donetsk in the final round of group fixtures meant we went out of the competition, despite our own 6-1 win over Nordsjaellaned under new interim coach Rafael Benitez.

Goalkeeping legends

Both Chelsea and Juventus will have new goalkeepers between the posts when we meet in Turin on Wednesday evening, as legendary duo Petr Cech and Gianluigi Buffon have both started all four previous matches between the two sides. With two of the best goalkeepers the world has ever seen on opposing sides, it is a little surprising that there have been 13 goals scored across those four matches, including two 2-2 draws, first at the Stadio Olimpico in March 2009 and then at Stamford Bridge in September 2012. In terms of clean sheets, it was a respectable draw, with Cech and Buffon keeping one each in matches between Chelsea and Juventus.

Friends reunited

This time around, our now technical and performance advisor Petr Cech will have the chance to catch up with an old friend in Turin, his former international team-mate and Juventus vice-chairman Pavel Nedved.

‘For me it’s nice to have Juventus because when we go there, I will meet my friend Pavel Nedved, who I haven’t seen in a long time, so it’s going to be nice to meet again,’ said Cech after the group stage draw.

Nedved was Czech Republic captain during Cech’s first four years competing at that level, including during the goalkeeper’s first international tournament, Euro 2004. They are also considered by many to be the two best players their country has ever produced, with 13 Czech Footballer of the Year awards between them.

Don’t make Tiago angry

Portuguese midfielder Tiago only spent one season at Stamford Bridge, but helped us to win our first Premier League title in 2004 before leaving for French club Lyon. However, he wasn’t quite so willing to move on at the end of his first season with Juventus, after being told club President Giovanni Cobolli Gigli was in talks over potential loan moves to Everton or Monaco on transfer deadline day, going so far as locking Cobolli Gigli in a toilet stall, where he remained trapped for over an hour, in an attempt to scupper the negotiations.

‘Alessandro Del Piero responded to the noise I was making banging on the door and offered to break it down,’ explained the Juve president. ‘Hopefully by midnight Tiago will have found another club.’

Unfortunately for the official, Tiago remained with Juventus for another two seasons before finally moving on in 2010 to join Atletico Madrid.

European elite

Some of the most successful strikers in Juventus’ history have also represented the Blues. Prime among them is Gianluca Vialli, who scored 53 goals and won pretty much every trophy going during his four years in Turin. Vialli is also one of three former Chelsea strikers to have scored in a European final for Juventus, doing so three times, in a defeat to Parma in the UEFA Cup before netting in both legs of their victory over Borussia Dortmund in the same competition.

In addition, Alvaro Morata scored in Juventus’ 2015 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid and Pierluigi Casiraghi opened the scoring in the 1991 Cup Winners’ Cup final loss to Barcelona. Gonzalo Higuain had to settle for an assist as Juventus lost to Real Madrid in the 2017 Champions League final, although he does sit at the top of this bunch for overall goals scored for the Old Lady, with 66 in total.

Leave on a high

As a player, Didier Deschamps enjoyed a glittering Juventus career full of silverware, before spending one season at Chelsea and winning the FA Cup alongside his close friend Marcel Desailly. His year as Juventus manager wasn’t quite so simple, though, taking charge of their only season outside the top flight, following the 2006 Calciopoli corruption scandal.

While they were strong favourites to return to Serie A, Deschamps had significant handicaps to deal with, including a nine-point deduction and replacing Italy’s World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro with Newcastle’s accident-prone defender Jean-Alain Boumsong. He overcame those to lead Juventus to first place, but then shocked everyone by resigning the day they secured the Serie B title, leaving with two games left of the season. Juve only lost four times in the whole campaign, half of which came in those last couple of weeks.