Bayern on familiar ground as they face Roma

FC Bayern München begin the new UEFA Champions League campaign as they finished the last – against Italian opposition.

• The German titleholders signed off last May with a 2-0 final defeat by FC Internazionale Milano. They begin Group E by renewing rivalries with AS Roma a quarter of a century since the clubs first crossed swords.

Previous meetings
• Bayern and Roma met in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals in March 1985. Bayern won the first leg in Munich through goals from Klaus Augenthaler (44) and Dieter Hoeness (77). The Bavarian side also prevailed in Rome, Ludwig Kögl getting an 81st-minute winner within 60 seconds of Sebastiano Nela equalising Lothar Matthäus's opener (33).

Match background
• Bayern drew 0-0 against Juventus on Matchday 2 last September but have had mixed fortunes at home to Italian opposition, their record reading W5 D5 L4.

• Bayern bettered two Italian teams en route to last season's final defeat by Inter in Madrid, advancing from the group stage with a 4-1 win at Juventus on Matchday 6 via goals from Jörg Butt (penalty), Ivica Olić, Mario Gómez and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.

• Bayern then beat ACF Fiorentina in the round of 16. They earned a 2-1 first-leg home win through Miroslav Klose's 89th-minute goal but owed their overall victory to Arjen Robben's fine 65th-minute strike in Florence that meant they lost only 3-2 so advancing on away goals.

• Second in Serie A last term, Roma are returning to the UEFA Champions League after a season's absence but have won only twice in Germany, losing their other eight matches.

• Their most recent visit brought a 3-1 defeat at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage. Daniele De Rossi, Francesco Totti and Simone Perrotta were in Roma's team that day.

• Roma reached the UEFA Europa League's round of 32 last season. Their record on the road was two wins, two draws and two defeats.

Team ties
• Bayern coach Louis van Gaal twice encountered Italian opposition in the UEFA Champions League final with AFC Ajax, beating AC Milan 1-0 in 1995 but losing on penalties to Juventus the next year. He also guided Ajax to victory against Torino FC in the 1992 UEFA Cup final.

• Roma coach Claudio Ranieri and Van Gaal first faced each other in Spanish football. From 1997 to 1999, when Ranieri was at Valencia CF and Van Gaal with FC Barcelona, both coaches recorded successive away victories over their rival in the Spanish Liga.

• Ranieri got the better of Van Gaal in the 1998/99 Spanish Cup, Valencia winning both legs of their quarter-final contest. During Ranieri's spell at Club Atlético de Madrid in 1999/2000 he faced Van Gaal's Barcelona once more, losing at Camp Nou.

• Roma's Nicolás Burdisso played alongside Bayern's Martín Demichelis in the Argentina team beaten 4-0 in the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals by a Germany side featuring Bayern's Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Klose and Thomas Müller.

• Juan was in the Brazil team eliminated by Robben and Mark van Bommel's Netherlands at the quarter-final stage in South Africa.

• De Rossi, Perrotta and Totti lined up against Frank Ribéry in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final. In the semi-final, Totti and Perrotta faced a Germany team including Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Klose.

• Juan played with Leverkusen from 2002 to 2007 and was a team-mate of Butt – the pair faced Roma together in the 2004/05 group stage. In that same season they lost to John Arne Riise's Liverpool FC in the last 16.

• Riise scored Liverpool's opening goal in a 3-2 victory against Bayern in the 2001 UEFA Super Cup.