Real Madrid aim to continue their faultless start to the Champions League group stage against a familiar foe when Lyon visit the Bernabeu Tuesday night.
Real and Lyon have met in the knockout round in the last two seasons, with Lyon edging the last-16 tie in 2010 and Real taking revenge in the last tournament.
"We are going to meet the same Lyon team as always," said Jose Mourinho, the Real coach, who returns to the touchline after serving a ban for outbursts against Uefa following last season's loss to Barcelona in the semi-finals.
"The trainers and players might change, but they are always a team that's serious, rigorous, good tactically, defensively strong and fantastic from dead balls." The striker Karim Benzema is fit to face his former team but will struggle to break into Mourinho's line-up after Gonzalo Higuain scored his third hat-trick in four games for club and country in Saturday's 4-1 win against Real Betis.
"There's a strange link between the two clubs," said Remi Garde, the Lyon coach. "This is obviously a very difficult tie for us, but for Real Madrid, too, because we've been their worst enemy the last few years."
In the group's other match, Dinamo Zagreb look for their first points of the group stage with a home match against Ajax.
Elsewhere, Juup Heynckes, the Bayern Munich manager, described Napoli as the best team in Italy ahead of their clash in Group A. The Germans lead the group, which also contains Manchester City, but Napoli are their closest challengers.
"Even though Napoli lost to Parma a few days ago we know we're facing the best team in Italy at the moment," Heynckes said.
TUESDAY'S GAMES
Group A
Man City v Villarreal (10.45pm UAE time)
Napoli v Bayern Munich (10.45pm)
Group B
CSKA Moscow v Trabzonspor (8pm)
Lille v Inter Milan (10.45pm)
Group C
Basle v Benfica (10.45pm)
Otelul Galati v Man Utd (10.45pm)
Group D
Dinamo Zagreb v Ajax (10.45pm)
Real Madrid v Lyon (10.45pm)
WEDNESDAY'S GAMES (All games kick off at 10.45pm UAE time)
Group E
Bayer Leverkusen v Valencia
Chelsea v Genk
Group F
Marseille v Arsenal
Olympiakos v Borussia Dortmund
Group G
Porto v Apoel Nicosia
Shakhtar Donetsk v Zenit St Petersburg
Group H
AC Milan v BATE Borisov
Barcelona v Viktoria Plzen
UAE TV: All games on Aljazeera Sport
