Sir Alex Ferguson must be in a bit of a panic regarding the upcoming match with
CSKA Moscow. Many of his key players will be injured for the upcoming
Champions League match. These include
Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Patrice Evra, Park Ji-sung and
Darren Fletcher. Past this,
Manchester United have never defeated a Russian team while on Russian soil. They have travelled east 5 times before and have never managed victory; something that Ferguson is well aware of. Manchester's first
Champions League road game against
Besiktas resulted in a narrow 1-0 win in a match that could have gone either way. With so many players missing and the considerable psychological advantage that
CSKA Moscow have in the cold weather, expect Ferguson to play a conservative strategy to ensure at least a point.
With only a month to go in the Russian Premier League,
CSKA Moscow are in 4th place and 7 points behind leaders
Rubin Kazan. In
Champions League group play, they lost while away to
VFL Wolfsburg, but won their home match against Turkish champions
Besiktas. They will field a strong side and look to exploit the current weakness of the visitors as well as their superiority at their home stadium. CSKA's bread-and-butter is midfielder
Milos Krasic, who is the current leading scorer for the team.
The psychological aspect of this game will reign supreme, but coupled with Ferguson's injury woes an away win becomes almost inevitable.
CSKA Moscow vs. Manchester United
Wednesday October 21, 2009
Kickoff: 20:45 CET
Tip: CSKA Moscow +0.5 (Asian Handicap)
Best Odds: 1.83 @ Bet365
