Fast-starters Juventus a threat to Zenit

After an absence of two years, 1996 winners Juventus are back in the UEFA Champions League hoping to make up for lost time. Their first contest brings them up against FC Zenit St. Petersburg, who, less than three weeks after adding the UEFA Super Cup to last season's UEFA Cup triumph, will be hoping to make a similar impact in Europe's top club competition.

• Before their enforced relegation to Serie B as a consequence of the sporting fraud scandal which hit Italian football two years ago, Juventus achieved successive quarter-final appearances in the UEFA Champions League between 2004/05 and 2005/06. They won their group in both seasons and also in 2003/04. In all three campaigns, they managed to get a lot of the hard work done early, winning their first three fixtures in 2003/04, the first five the following year and the first two the year after that. So the Russian debutants will be expecting a fierce onslaught in this Group H opener.

• Juventus have also built up an impressive record at the Stadio delle Alpi in recent years, winning all three home group games in both 2004/05 and 2005/06. In total, they played ten home games in those seasons, winning eight, drawing two and conceding just two goals. Their last home defeat in the competition came against RC Deportivo La Coruña in the first knockout round on 9 March 2004, the Spanish club triumphing 1-0 on the night and 2-0 overall.

• Their last home defeat in the initial group stage (they were beaten in Turin in the second group stage in February 2003) came on 24 October 2000 when SV Hamburger won 3-1. Since then, they have played 15 home games in the first group stage and have won them all, scoring 38 goals and only conceding seven.

• After their third-place finish in Serie A, Claudio Ranieri's side had to qualify for the group stage and achieved that with a 5-1 aggregate victory over FC Artmedia Petržalka. It was set up by a 4-0 win in Turin with Mauro Camoranesi and Alessandro Del Piero giving Juve a comfortable advantage by the half-hour mark. Giorgio Chiellini made it 3-0 by half-time with Nicola Legrottaglie completing the scoring. The game in Bratislava ended 1-1 with Amauri grabbing an equaliser after Branislav Fodrek had put the Slovakian titleholders ahead.

• Juventus, who apart from their UEFA Champions League triumph 12 years ago were runners-up on three occasions between 1996/97 and 2002/03, have met Russian opponents on two previous occasions in European competition. In the first round of the 1993/94 UEFA Cup they faced FC Lokomotiv Moskva and had things mostly their own way, winning 3-0 at home and 1-0 away. Their 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup semi-final with FC Rostov proved even more comfortable for the Italian side. They won 4-0 away and enjoyed the same winning advantage in Turin, this time by 5-1.

• Zenit's only previous contest with a team from Italy came in the 1999/00 UEFA Cup first round when they lost 3-0 to Bologna FC in the home leg. Some respectability was restored as the St. Petersburg outfit drew 2-2 in Italy.

• Zenit owe their first ever participation in the UEFA Champions League to their success in lifting the Premier-Liga title – for only the second time – with a two-point advantage over FC Spartak Moskva. It proved a fantastic season for coach Dick Advocaat and his team, who added the UEFA Cup to their trophy cabinet with a 2-0 victory over Rangers FC at the City of Manchester Stadium. Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov scored the all-important goals as Advocaat celebrated a first ever European crown.

• That gave Zenit a date in the UEFA Super Cup at the Stade Louis II on 29 August, where a goal in each half from Pavel Pogrebnyak and debutant Danny secured them victory over Manchester United FC and another trophy.

• The other game in Group H sees Real Madrid CF take on FC BATE Borisov.