Juventus Stadium - Turin 02/10/2012 - 20:45CET (20:45 local time)
Group stage - Group E
Group stage - Group E
Juventus plan more trouble for Shakhtar
Published: Tuesday 25 September 2012, 16.44CET
Juventus have won four of their six fixtures against opponents from Ukraine and are boosted by their matchday one comeback as they await the visit of FC Shakhtar Donetsk.
Juventus' record against opponents from Ukraine should put them in good heart for the visit of FC Shakhtar Donetsk.
• The Italian champions will be further buoyed by their comeback from 2-0 down to earn a draw at holders Chelsea FC on matchday one, while Shakhtar took the early initiative in Group E with a 2-0 home defeat of FC Nordsjælland.
Previous meetings
• The teams have only met on one previous occasion – the 1976/77 UEFA Cup third round when a 3-0 first-leg home victory for Juventus was enough to see them through. Shakhtar won 1-0 in Donetsk.
• The Turin outfit have met another Ukrainian club, FC Dynamo Kyiv, in the UEFA Champions League, winning the 1997/98 quarter-final tie 5-2 on aggregate despite drawing their home leg 1-1.
• The teams met again in the group stage five seasons later when Juve won 5-0 at home and 2-1 away.
• Shakhtar had to wait until their eighth UEFA Champions League game against Italian opponents for their first victory. They beat AS Roma 1-0 in Donetsk in the 2006/07 group stage to end a run of nine games without a win, including two in the European Cup Winners' Cup, that followed their 1976 success over Juventus. Of those nine games, eight were lost with the other drawn.
• Shakhtar were successful on their last visit to Italy, beating Roma 3-2 in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League round of 16 – their first away win there at the eighth attempt. They followed up with a 3-0 win in the return leg.
• Răzvan Raţ scored an own goal in the first game with Douglas Costa and Luiz Adriano both on target at the right end for the visitors. Willian struck twice in Donetsk with Eduardo notching the other.
Match background
• Juventus, winners of the Scudetto in 2011/12 and unbeaten in the 38-game season, were last in the UEFA Champions League in 2009/10 when they began with a 1-1 home draw against FC Girondins de Bordeaux. They went on to beat Maccabi Haifa FC 1-0 at home and lost 4-1 to FC Bayern München in Turin.
• Shakhtar, Ukrainian double winners in 2011/12, began last season's group stage with a 2-1 defeat at FC Porto and also lost 1-0 at FC Zenit St Petersburg. They concluded with a 2-0 victory at APOEL FC but still finished fourth in the section.
Team ties
• Mircea Lucescu faced Juventus on nine occasions in the 1990s as coach of Serie A sides AC Pisa 1909, Brescia Calcio, AC Reggiana 1919 and FC Internazionale Milano. His only victory was Brescia's 2-0 home win on 14 March 1994 – four games were lost and the other four drawn. Lucescu's final match against Juve was Inter's 0-0 draw on 27 February 1999.
• Lucescu scored in Romania's 4-2 friendly defeat by Italy in Milan on 5 June 1976.
• Andrea Pirlo had two spells with Lucescu, who promoted him to the first-team squad at Brescia although the Romanian had been sacked by the time Pirlo made his professional debut on 21 May 1995. The two linked up again at Inter during 1998/99.
• Eduardo opened the scoring in Croatia's 2-0 friendly victory against Italy in Livorno in August 2006.
• Fernandinho played alongside Lúcio when making his international debut for Brazil in a 3-2 defeat by Germany in Stuttgart on 10 August 2011.
• Mirko Vučinić suffered three defeats in the UEFA Champions League against Shakhtar while with Roma, playing 12 minutes in Donetsk on 22 November 2006 as the Ukraine club won 1-0 in the group stage. In 2010/11, Vučinić played in both legs of the round of 16 tie as Shakhtar won 3-2 away and 3-0 at home.
• Eduardo and Nicklas Bendtner were team-mates with Arsenal FC from 2007 to 2010.
• Alessandro Matri made his international debut for Italy against Ukraine in a Kyiv friendly on 29 March 2011, scoring the second goal in a 2-0 away win.
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