After winning the competition for the first time in the previous campaign, all eyes were on Chelsea to see if they could become the first team to successfully defend the Champions League trophy.
Victory against Bayern Munich at their home ground sparked jubilant scenes with everyone connected with Chelsea after they finally fulfilled their main ambition since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
Now it was the turn of the Blues to show that they could build upon their success and become the main superpower of European football. Their summer signings suggested that they could justify being one of the favourites to lift the trophy at Wembley in May.
Eden Hazard and Oscar had both arrived at Stamford Bridge for a combined fee of over £50m, and the duo were selected to start against Juventus in the first game of the 2012-13 group stage.
However, the Serie A outfit arrived in West London with an unbeaten domestic record that stretched to 42 games, and they displayed their quality with a dominating start against Roberto Di Matteo's side, with Petr Cech doing well to stop a Claudio Marchisio effort.
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Soon after, striker Mirko Vucinic sent a shot fizzing past the post, but it was that near-miss that appeared to sting Chelsea into life, and their new Brazilian playmaker soon changed the fortunes of his side with a quickfire double shortly after the half-hour mark.
Oscar's first from 20 yards was a tad fortunate, striking Leonardo Bonucci to take the ball away from the desperate reach of Gianluigi Buffon, but there was nothing lucky about his second, which had the Stamford Bridge faithful on their feet.
The ball was played into the 21-year-old with pace, but the former Internacional midfielder turned sharply from his marker before curling a delightful curling effort into the top corner that had Buffon grasping fresh air.
It was the kind of goal that should have acted as a stepping stone for Chelsea to progress to a comfortable win, but Juventus wasted no time in delivering their response through Arturo Vidal, who forced the ball past Cech and into the bottom corner.
The mood around Stamford Bridge had changed, and then Blues manager Di Matteo was happy to get his side back into the dressing room as Juventus began to regain their stranglehold on the game.
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Chelsea returned with a positive mindset and immediately set about testing Buffon, who was forced into action to prevent Branislav Ivanovic and Frank Lampard from reopening Chelsea's two-goal advantage.
Juan Mata, who had replaced Oscar, also wasted a fantastic opportunity to seal victory after combining with Hazard, but he shot into the side-netting and it proved to be a costly error.
Juventus introduced Fabio Quagliarella with 15 minutes remaining and he made an instant impact, breaking down the left-hand side before slipping the ball past the advancing Cech.
The Italian international almost won it for Juventus with just a few minutes remaining, but with Cech beaten, his precise shot from inside the penalty area clipped the angle and rebounded to safety.
Chelsea survived to earn a point from what had been a testing opening fixture as defending champions, but the two points that they dropped turned out to be decisive, with defeats in the return game in Italy and against Shakhtar Donetsk condemning them to an early exit from the competition.
Darren Plant
