Rapid reunion for Juventus and Sevilla

Two sides who fought for group stage supremacy in 2015/16 get the Group H show on the road on matchday one with Juventus defending a remarkable matchday one record as they entertain Sevilla FC.

Previous meetings
• The teams had not met before last season's group stage, when Juve won 2-0 in Turin with goals from Álvaro Morata and substitute Simone Zaza.

• The lineups at the Juventus Stadium on 30 September 2015 were:
Juve: Buffon, Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini, Cuadrado, Khedira (Alex Sandro 76), Hernanes, Evra, Pogba, Dybala (Rugani 88), Morata (Zaza 80).
Sevilla: Rico, Coke, Andreolli, Kolodziejczak, Trémoulinas, N'Zonzi (Iborra 66), Krychowiak, Konoplyanka, Krohn-Dehli, Gameiro (Immobile 66), Reyes (Juan Muñoz 79).

• The Spanish side turned the tables in the return thanks to Fernando Llorente's 65th-minute winner which consigned Juve to second place in Group D, behind Manchester City FC.

Match background

Juventus
• The 2014/15 runners-up have never lost an opening fixture in 16 campaigns, winning ten and drawing six. Last season they triumphed 2-1 at Manchester City on matchday one, with Samir Nasri in the opposite side. They beat City 1-0 in the return and drew 0-0 with VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in their other home game.

• In the round of 16 the two-time European champions drew 2-2 at home to FC Bayern München, losing 4-2 away in extra time.

• The Bianconeri are on a 17-match unbeaten home run in UEFA competition, dating back to a 2-0 loss to Bayern in April 2013. Two seasons ago they faced three Spanish sides, losing 1-0 at Club Atlético de Madrid in the group before a 0-0 draw in the return. They fared better against Real Madrid CF, winning 2-1 at home in the semi-finals en route to a 3-2 aggregate triumph. The Turin club then lost the final 3-1 to FC Barcelona.

• Their overall home record against Liga opposition is W14 D7 L2.

Sevilla
• The Andalusian club start their fourth group stage campaign with former Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli at the helm after he succeeded Unai Emery in the summer.

• Last season they put the disappointment at only finishing third in Group D – five points behind Juve – by lifting the UEFA Europa League for the third successive year and fifth time in 11 seasons.

• In the senior competition they lost all three away fixtures. In the UEFA Europa League they won one of their four away games (drawing two) en route to the final in Basel where they overcame Liverpool FC 3-1.

• Sevilla won for the first time in Italy – at the third attempt – in May 2015 with a 2-0 success at ACF Fiorentina in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League semi-final to secure a 5-0 aggregate success. Their previous two visits had ended in 1-0 defeats in which they failed to score.

• In winning their fourth UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup in 2015, Sevilla surpassed Juventus's three titles and became the club with most triumphs in the competition outright.

• The third of those four successes came at the Juventus Stadium in 2013/14, as Sevilla dispatched SL Benfica 4-2 on penalties after a goalless final.

Coach and player links
• Dani Alves played for Sevilla between 2002 and 2008 winning the UEFA Cup twice and the UEFA Super Cup in 2006 and the Copa del Rey. He then played for FC Barcelona before joining Juve this summer, winning the Copa del Rey against Sevilla in his last game in Spain.

• Also played in Spain:
Mario Mandžukić, Atlético (2014/15)
Sami Khedira, Madrid (2010–2015)
Gonzalo Higuaín, Madrid (2007–13)

• Salvatore Sirigu, Gianluigi Buffon's deputy in the Italian national team, played for US Città di Palermo between 2007 and 2011 where he was a team-mate of Andrea Barzagli.

• Franco Vázquez was with Palermo from 2013 to 2016 and during that time was the attacking partner of Paulo Dybala.

• Also played in Italy:
Joaquín Correa, UC Sampdoria (2015/16)
Adil Rami, AC Milan (2014/15)

• Players who have also played together:
Miralem Pjanić & Timothée Kolodziejczak (Olympique Lyonnais 2008–11)
Pablo Sarabia & Khedira, Higuaín (Madrid 2010/11)

• International team-mates:
Benoît Trémoulinas, Rami, Sami Nasri & Patrice Evra (France)
Matías Kranevitter, Gabriel Mercado & Gonzalo Higuaín, Paulo Dybala (Argentina)
Salvatore Sirigu, Franco Vázquez & Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Claudio Marchisio, Stefano Sturaro, Barzagli (Italy)

• In the 2015 Copa América final, Higuaín missed a penalty for Argentina in the shoot-out defeat against Jorge Sampaoli's Chile.

Match facts

Juventus
• Looking to claim an unprecedented sixth straight Scudetto, Juventus have started the new Serie A campaign with three straight victories.

• Juventus have won 27 of their last 29 games in Serie A, a 0-0 draw at Bologna FC on 19 February and a 2-1 defeat at Hellas-Verona FC on 8 May the exceptions.

• Claudio Marchisio (cruciate ligaments) and Stefano Sturaro (twisted knee) are yet to play this season.

• Gonzalo Higuaín – who broke a 66-year-old Serie A record by scoring 36 goals for SSC Napoli last term – scored his first goal in a Juve shirt with the winner as a substitute in a 2-1 win against ACF Fiorentina. He then added two more in the first ten minutes of Saturday's 3-1 defeat of US Sassuolo.

• Sami Khedira scored the opener against Fiorentina and then netted the only goal of the game in the 1-0 victory at SS Lazio in the following Serie A match.

• Paulo Dybala was sent off on his first start for Argentina on 1 September, a 1-0 win against Uruguay. Club-mate Giorgio Chiellini also saw red as Italy won 3-1 in Israel in their first FIFA World Cup qualifier.

• Gianluigi Buffon – making his 163rd appearance for Italy - and Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci also contributed to the Azzurri's success in Israel.

• Dani Alves and Juan Cuadrado played against each other as Brazil defeated Colombia 2-1 while Khedira (Germany) and Miralem Pjanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) also earned notable wins, 3-0 against Norway and 5-0 against Estonia respectively.

Sevilla
• Sevilla have gone 20 games without an away win in the Liga, dating back to their last domestic outing of 2014/15.

• Jorge Sampaoli's side began the Liga season with a remarkable 6-4 victory over RCD Espanyol on 20 August. All the home side's goals came from players making their league debuts for the club: Pablo Sarabia, Wissam Ben Yedder, Hiroshi Kiyotake, Luciano Vietto (2) and Franco Vázquez.

• Carlos Fernández came off the bench to score his first Sevilla goal with the very last touch of Saturday's 2-1 defeat of UD Las Palmas.

• Benoît Trémoulinas (knee), Michael Krohn-Delhi (knee) and David Soria (foot) are all sidelined.

• Vitolo scored his first goal for Spain in an 8-0 victory over Liechtenstein in FIFA World Cup qualifying on 5 September.

• Sevilla missed out on two pieces on silverware in August, going down to a 119th-minute goal in a 3-2 defeat by Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup and then losing 5-0 on aggregate against Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup.