Last season's Champions League winners, Paris Saint-Germain, begin the defence of their trophy by hosting Serie A side Atalanta at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.
It's only the second meeting between the two sides, with the first coming back in August 2020 and at a neutral venue - Estadio da Luz - because of COVID.
Atalanta's brilliant away form should concern PSG
On that occasion, the Bergameschi were a whisker away from beating Thomas Tuchel's side in the quarter-finals thanks to Mario Pasalic's superb 26th-minute strike, only to be pegged back by Marquinhos' 90th-minute equaliser and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting's 93rd-minute winner.
They'll arrive in Paris having only just won their first match of the 2025/26 season - a 4-1 victory over Lecce - but in the knowledge that they've scored in all of their last 15 European group or league away games and are unbeaten in eight.
Three wins, one draw, and one loss in their five Champions League games away from home last season shows that the visitors will be no pushovers, and they're also on a four-match away unbeaten streak (W3 D1 L0) in all competitions.
Ivan Juric's side have also scored in every match since their game against Lazio in Serie A back in April, and in terms of current form, they've won three, drawn two and lost one in their last six. During that time, they've scored 13 and conceded nine, and have opened the scoring in four of those matches.
No Lookman or Dembele
The top scorer in their 2024/25 UCL campaign with five goals, Ademola Lookman hasn't played a single minute for the club this season after his failed attempt to engineer a summer move away, and Juric has also left him out of the travelling party for this fixture.
By contrast, Luis Enrique's men have won five and lost one of their last half-dozen, scoring 12 and conceding eight as well as scoring first in four of the six games, and they also had five wins, one draw, and two losses in eight Champions League matches at Parc des Princes last season.
Their main man in their run to the title with eight goals and current Ballon d'Or favourite Ousmane Dembele will also be missing, as will the livewire Desire Doue after both were injured on international duty with France.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Lucas Beraldo and Kang-in Lee picked up knocks during the 2-0 win against Lens over the weekend; however, only Beraldo appears to be a doubt for Wednesday's assignment.
Bradley Barcola is certain to get a start along with Kvaratskhelia and Goncalo Ramos in a changed front three.
Vitinha expected to dictate
If Luis Enrique intends to go with his tried and tested 4-3-3 formation, then there's an expectation that Vitinha, Joao Neves and Fabian Ruiz will provide the ammunition from midfield.
In the former, PSG have one of the supreme passers from last season's competition, whilst Neves continues to emerge as more of a supplementary attacking threat.
With Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes raiding down either flank from the full-back position in what has become a very fluid PSG XI, Atalanta are certainly going to have their work cut out to keep the Ligue 1 giants quiet for the full 90 minutes.
The visitors have Mitchell Bakker and Sead Kolasinac on the long-term injury list, whilst Ederson is missing from the engine room and Gianluca Scamacca is still unable to provide a physical presence up front.
Atalanta's intensity could catch PSG cold
Fortunately, in Charles De Ketelaere and Nicola Zalewski, the Bergamaschi have two players who can dictate, and who were hugely impressive during the win over Lecce where the former scored twice.
De Ketelaere also had nine goal involvements in 10 Champions League games last season.
A 3-4-2-1 from Juric gives Atalanta enough of a presence in midfield to keep things tight, and the intensity which they bring to matches could see a similar start to that which PSG experienced in the Club World Cup final.
On that occasion, they were shellshocked by a Chelsea side who were physical and quick to shut down the spaces, and given that the hosts are yet to come up against a team this season with that sort of intensity, they could be caught out in the same way as they were against Arsenal on matchday two of last season's competition.
It shouldn't be forgotten either that PSG were very close to actually being eliminated from the Champions League at the league stage in 2024/25.
They finished only two points ahead of the cut-off in 15th, and were it not for the 4-2 win over Man City - after being two goals down on 53 minutes - they would've been out of the competition in January.
This match could therefore be a closer call than expected.