It is safe to say there is no love lost between Maurizio Sarri and Diego Simeone, who have viciously sniped at each other over the years, so the Champions League clash Lazio-Atletico Madrid ought to be fiery.
This is the opening fixture in the group phase, kicking off at the Stadio Olimpico on September 19.
The group is rounded out by Feyenoord and Celtic, providing further contrasting approaches to the game.
Ahead of that showdown, the media in Italy has been looking back over some of the comments the notoriously spiky aesthete Sarri has made about Simeone’s style, which earned the name Cholismo.
“Everyone thinks about football in the way that they conceive of it,” said Sarri when on the Napoli bench in May 2016.
“Of course, if I saw my team playing defend and counter, then after 30 minutes I’d stand up and go back to working in a bank, because it just wouldn’t be any fun.
“I have great respect for Simeone, because I know that playing against his teams is extremely problematic.”
When the two coaches met again in 2019 and Sarri was by that point on the bench of Juventus, Simeone sent a barbed response to his colleague.
“We work for results. If those results arrive after 10 or 50 passes in a row, it doesn’t make much difference.”
The only competitive matches between the tacticians saw Juventus fumble a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 in Madrid, then beat Atletico 1-0 in Turin, both in the 2019-20 Champions League group phase.