All the pre-game talk about this being the ultimate test for Tottenham tells only half the story. It could well prove the ultimate test for Juventus, too.
In 1867, a gardener called Matteo Pochettino left his tiny village of Virle in the province of Turin, to move to Argentina and make a new life for himself. Taking his wife Virgilia and son Michele with him, he settled in Murphy, an even smaller village north-west of Buenos Aires, and began working the land. Four generations and 105 years later, Mauricio was born. And although he was made proudly aware of his Piedmontese heritage, taught all about Italian football by his Juventus-supporting grandfather, he had never visited Turin. Until now.
In one sense, then, Pochettino is coming home. Yet as his side arrive in Turin for the latest stop on their grand European adventure, seven years since they last played a Champions League knockout game, they will be bleakly aware that this is no time to stand and admire the view. No time to breathe in the crisp Alpine air, or sit back and marvel at just how far they have come in these few short years. Danger lurks all around, in the shape of a Juventus team that has dominated Italian football over the last decade and knows, perhaps as well as anyone else, where these ties are won and lost.