The first time Tom Cleverley faced Angelo Ogbonna on a football pitch was when the Watford head coach made his debut for England in 2012 – and the game featured four other players who also wore the yellow of the Hornets, as well as a future Watford head coach.

The friendly was played in Bern, Switzerland, on August 15, 2012, and ended in a 2-1 win for England with Cleverley playing the full 90 minutes on his debut.

England went behind to an early Daniele De Rossi header but Phil Jagielka nodded home an equaliser and the 76th minute winner came from Jermaine Defoe.

Goalkeeper Jack Butland also made his debut that night, with Cleverley becoming England’s 1,184th new cap.

In the second half, Butland was replaced by John Ruddy who was the 1,185th new player to wear the Three Lions shirt.

Roy Hodgson gave Cleverley his debut that night, and in the process he became the 62nd Manchester United player to represent England.

Ashley Young and Adam Johnson were also in the starting XI, and Jake Livermore came on in the 69th minute for his England debut (and was the 1,186th England international, quickly followed by Ryan Bertrand nine minutes later).

On the bench for Italy that night was winger Diego Fabbrini, and he came on in the 82nd minute for his one and only senior cap – and was promptly booked four minutes later!

In 2014, Fabbrini joined Watford from Udinese and went on to score once in 29 appearances for the Hornets, eventually leaving to join Birmingham in 2016 after loan spells with Millwall and Middlesbrough.

Ogbonna, who was at Torino at the time, was earning the fourth of his 13 caps for Italy, and like Cleverley played the full 90 minutes of the game.

The defender had made his debut for The Azzurri as a sub against Poland in a November 2011 friendly, before starting another friendly against USA three months later.

The majority of his 13 caps were in friendlies, though he did play all of the 1-0 defeat to Ireland in the final group game of the 2016 Euro Finals.

Cleverley and Ogbonna have played against each other six times in total: the England/Italy game was the first, and then when Everton beat West Ham 2-0 in 2016.

They met four times when Cleverley was playing for Watford, the first being a 2-0 win at Vicarage Road in November 2017 (goals from Will Hughes and Richarlison) and then a 2-0 win at the London Stadium in December 2018, when Troy Deeney and Gerard Deulofeu scored.

West Ham won both games in the 2019/20 season, with the scoreline being 3-1 on both occasions.

As well as Ogbonna, Cleverley also played against new loan signing Daniel Jebbison, despite there being a 14-year age gap between the pair - and Cleverley having retired more than a year ago.

It happened on the opening day of the 2022/23 season when Cleverley was in the Watford team that won 1-0 against Sheffield United at Vicarage Road, and Jebbison started up front for the Blades.