For the supporters of Manchester City and Napoli it is probably true; City won the competition in 2023 and it their 15th successive season in the Champions League, whilst the Italians it is their ninth campaign although the furthest they have gone is the quarter finals in 2022/23 and the only European trophy to their name is the UEFA Cup in 1989.
And it was the City fans who welcomed the new campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win with a header from Erling Haaland and a solo effort from Jeremy Doku, both in the second half.
Pep Guardiola will be hoping this will have stopped the rot of recent European form which had seen them lose four of their last five Champions League matches.
Pre match the clash had all been about the return of City legend Kevin De Bruyne who left reluctantly in the summer after a decade and sixteen trophies under his belt. The 34 year old arrived in Napoli being likened to Diego Maradona who brought such success to the Italians.
There were banners from the City faithful welcoming him back to the Etihad Stadium, his name was cheered when the teams were announced and chants of "Ohh, Kevin de Bruyne" again rang around the stadium.
De Bruyne setback
They were sung again after 25 minutes when the Belgium was substituted following the red card to Napoli skipper Giovanni Di Lorenzo. It wasn’t meant to be like this…
Lorenzo was dismissed courtesy of VAR after denying Erling Haaland a clear goal scoring opportunity although the Italian media around me and the near 3,000 travelling Napoli supporters were not impressed.
With eleven players Italian teams defend with an intense fervour, but with ten a certain manic intensity comes over them which makes it very difficult for the opposition and when you have a keeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic who seems to attract the ball then it looked like being one of those nights for the home team.
But after a frustrating first half it was the prolific Norwegian who broke Italian hearts with his early second half strike. That was his 50th Champions League goal in just 49 games and with it he became the quickest player to reach that milestone.
The second goal quickly afterwards meant the rest of the half was a stroll for the hosts as Napoli never threatened Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal. In fact the only grief the Italian keeper got was from the visiting fans who objected to his previous life with AC Milan and to add insult to injury he was born close to Naples.
Hojlund quiet
City had been in control even before the sending off so the other sideshows of this game rarely made an impression. The two former Manchester United players on show, Scott McTominay and loanee Rasmus Hojlund were booed initially but this became rather less as the game progressed.
Hojlund was left alone up front but as Old Trafford fans will know the striker struggled to retain the ball with a full compliment of players so it was unfair to expect him to cope with just ten, particularly as the Italians failed to support him being more concerned with damage limitation.
Napoli are now managed by former Tottenham and Chelsea boss Antonio Conte who probably hoped his record of being one of the few managers to have an advantage over Guardiola would continue, but the score is now four victories each.
Before the game there was a large police presence on the outside concourse and streets, presumably the reputation of the Napoli supporters going before them but the mood was subdued at the final whistle.
In fact many City fans were leaving before the end such was their teams dominance but there was still enough left at the end for another bout of Kevin De Bruyne chanting as he came on to the field to acknowledge his former team-mates then disappeared down the tunnel.