Background: Manchester City steeled for Juve visit

Last season's UEFA Champions League runners-up Juventus kick off the 2015/16 campaign with a visit to Manchester City FC.

• Both of these Group D rivals had their hopes dashed by FC Barcelona in 2014/15 – City lost 3-1 on aggregate to the eventual champions in the last 16, before Juventus fell by the same scoreline in the final in Berlin.

Previous meetings
• Brian Kidd, City's assistant manager, scored in their 1-0 home win over Juventus on 15 September 1976 in the UEFA Cup first round. Juventus turned the tables in Turin, winning 2-0 through Gaetano Scirea and Roberto Boninsegna.

• The clubs played out two 1-1 draws in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage, with Adam Johnson cancelling out Vincenzo Iaquinta's goal in Manchester. City ended up as group winners with Juventus eliminated in third place after six draws.

• The lineups in Manchester on 30 September 2010 were:
City: Hart, Boateng (Milner 84), Kompany, K Touré, Zabaleta (Boyata 46), Johnson, Vieira, Y Touré, Barry, Adebayor (Silva 73), Tévez.
Juventus: Manninger, Grygera, Chiellini, Marchisio, Martínez (Pepe 54), Krasić (Melo 75), Bonucci, Sissoko, De Ceglie (Motta 72), Del Piero, Iaquinta.

Match background

Manchester City
• Second in the Premier League in 2015, City are competing in the group stage for the fifth year running. In each of their last two campaigns, they advanced to the round of 16.

• City won just one of their four home fixtures last season – against FC Bayern München (3-2) last November – and have only three wins from their last 11.

• City's three home encounters with Serie A visitors this decade have all ended 1-1 – including last September's meeting with AS Roma. Their last home win over Italian opponents was against AC Milan (3-0) in the 1978/79 UEFA Cup third round, with Kidd among the scorers.

Juventus
• This is the fourth successive group stage campaign for the Italian champions, who are unbeaten in their last four away games in the competition.

• Juventus have not won in England since beating Manchester United FC 1-0 in the 1996/97 group stage.

• The two-time European champions came from two goals down to hold Chelsea FC 2-2 on their last visit to England in the 2012/13 group stage. Their overall away record against English clubs is W2 D6 L12.

Coach and player links
• Rival coaches Manuel Pellegrini and Massimiliano Allegri met in the 2012/13 group stage when the former's Málaga CF side defeated Allegri's Milan 1-0 at home and drew 1-1 at San Siro.

• With Milan, Allegri also suffered a round of 16 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur FC in 2010/11 but oversaw victory over Arsenal FC at the same stage in 2011/12.

• Stephan Lichtsteiner has already faced Raheem Sterling once on English soil this month when his Switzerland team lost 2-0 to Sterling's England in a UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier on 8 September.

• As Villarreal CF coach, Pellegrini brought Martín Cáceres to Europe in 2007 though the player was immediately loaned to RC Recreativo de Huelva and never played for the Chilean.

• Patrice Evra made his Manchester United FC debut in a 3-1 derby loss to City in January 2006 – and was taken off at half-time. His record on City's ground as a United player was W4 D1 L5.

• Paul Pogba made only seven substitute appearances as a United player (2009–12).

• Claudio Marchisio scored past Joe Hart in Italy's 2-1 victory over England at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

• David Silva scored past Gianluigi Buffon in Spain's 4-0 UEFA EURO 2012 final victory over Italy.

• As a SS Lazio player, Aleksandar Kolarov did not beat Juventus in four attempts in Serie A but did prevail in the 2008/09 Coppa Italia semi-final where Lazio won 2-1 both home and away with the Serbian scoring past Buffon in the second leg in Turin.

• Players who have played together:
Kolarov & Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lazio, 2008–10)
Eliaquim Mangala, Nicolás Otamendi, Fernando & Alex Sandro (Porto 2010–14)
Cáceres & Yaya Touré (Barcelona 2008–09)
Cáceres & Jesús Navas (Sevilla 2010–12)
Sergio Agüero, Martín Demichelis, Otamendi, Pablo Zabaleta & Roberto Pereyra (Argentina)
Bacary Sagna, Samir Nasri & Evra, Pogba (France)
Navas, Silva & Álvaro Morata (Spain)

Match facts

Manchester City
• City registered their tenth successive league win when they prevailed 2-0 against Watford FC on 29 August, breaking a 103-year-old club record for consecutive victories in all competitions.

• City also beat Crystal Palace FC on Saturday, 18-year-old Kelechi Iheanacho scoring a 90th-minute winner having come off the bench to make only his second appearance for the club.

• Agüero limped off after 25 minutes against Palace with a knee injury.

• Including the end of last season, Pellegrini's men have not conceded a goal for 566 minutes.

• Raheem Sterling scored his first goal for the Citizens in the defeat of Watford.

• Zabaleta was ruled out for a month on 21 August after suffering a knee injury in training.

• Hart and Fabian Delph helped England to a 6-0 victory against San Marino on 5 September – a win that confirmed their place at UEFA EURO 2016.

• Hart, Delph and Sterling were involved in the subsequent 2-0 triumph against Switzerland, Delph pulling up with a hamstring injury inside the first minute. He is set to be sidelined for between four and six weeks.

• Otamendi, Demichelis, Zabaleta and Agüero were part of the Argentina squad that reached the Copa América final in July, losing to hosts Chile on penalties.

• Agüero scored twice in Argentina's 7-0 friendly win against Bolivia on 4 September and was on target after coming off the bench in the 2-2 draw with Mexico four days later.

Juventus
• The Bianconeri lost both of their opening Serie A fixtures for the first time – 1-0 at home to Udinese Calcio and 2-1 away to AS Roma – and required a late penalty from Paulo Dybala to salvage a 1-1 draw against AC Chievo Verona on Saturday.

• The Udinese reverse was the Old Lady's first home league defeat since UC Sampdoria won 2-1 in Turin on 6 January 2013, a run of 47 games.

• Evra was sent off 12 minutes from time in Rome.

• Juventus won the Italian Super Cup by overcoming Lazio 2-0 on 8 August, Mario Mandžukić and Paulo Dybala scoring on their debuts.

• Sami Khedira sustained a right thigh injury in a friendly against Olympique de Marseille on 1 August and is yet to make his competitive debut for the club.

• Marchisio (thigh) also missed the two first Serie A games but started against Chievo – only to go off at half-time with a fresh thigh problem.

• Allegri (2017), Marchisio and Leonardo Bonucci (both 2020) renewed their contracts this summer.

• Buffon – helped by his defensive team-mates Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini – kept clean sheets against Malta and Bulgaria on 3 and 6 September respectively as Italy won both UEFA EURO 2016 qualifiers 1-0.