Di Matteo will enjoy his first, albeit emotional contact with his former employers, where he made so many amazing memories, since he was given the chop in November 2012.
Jose Mourinho is the only man that could take away the pain of the Di Matteo sacking in the eyes of Chelsea fans; the Portuguese maverick is a god at Stamford Bridge and he will do absolutely no harm to his reputation whatsoever with a win in Germany tomorrow night, qualifying his side for the next round of the UEFA Champions League.
TEAM NEWS:
Jose Mourinho is expected to have a full line-up available for tomorrow's game, with Cesc Fabregas, Ramires and Loic Remy all recovering from recent niggling injuries, with Diego Costa expected to come back into the starting line-up after coming on as a substitute against Maribor two weeks ago.
The Blues will receive a huge boost as the news emerges out of Gelsenkirchen that Schalke's star turn, Julian Draxler will miss the game, due to an ongoing groin injury. The hosts are also without Jefferson Farfan and defender Sead Kolašinac.
MEDIA COMMENTS:
Mourinho is insistent that his sides's emotional attachment to the Swiss-Italian manager will not steal the headlines and won't stop his side's hunger to win and secure qualification.
Mourinho said: "I don't play against him. If I play against him, he wins because he plays better than me. Unless I am fitter, which I don't know, but normally he wins because he is much better than me. It is Chelsea against Schalke, it is not me against Di Matteo."
"This team wants to be a very good team and to be a very good team you have to play against the best teams in the best competitions."
His counterpart for the evening has also spoken of his determination to get one over on the club where he broke numerous records, as player and manager.
Di Matteo's side won 3-2 against Wolfsburg on Saturday and he said: "For me personally, I'll just concentrate on my work of trying to win the game for Schalke. Chelsea also played on Saturday and they are in the same position as us in terms of recovery.
"We have the Champions League game on Tuesday where everything is still open and anything can happen, but we want to take at least a point from the home game."
The two sides already met this season, drawing 1-1, courtesy of Cesc Fabregas and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar at Stamford Bridge in the first round of matches.