Just a couple weeks ago on 21 October,
Manchester United did what they were never able to do before; beat Russian opposition on Russian soil. The final score was a mere 1-0 thanks to winger
Luis Valencia, but the victory still helped
Alex Ferguson get a major thorn out of his side. The 1-0 aggregate scoreline will put
CSKA's hopes of qualifying all but gone. In Manchester's Saturday Premier League match against
Blackburn Rovers, both
Dimitar Berbetov and
Wayne Rooney found the net to win the game 2-0.
Edwin Van der Sar has kept a clean sheet in the last 2 games against weaker opposition.
Manchester United are top of Group B with 9 points and will solidify their position with a win here. However, a tough matchup this weekend against
Chelsea FC will no doubt cause Sir Alex to rest some of his starters.
Michael Owen will probably get the start, but he has been so in form that they should win the game anyhow.
CSKA Moscow likewise have an important matchup this Saturday against Russian Premier League leaders
Rubin Kazan. They will be at home and will want to make the most of this opportunity to rise in the table rankings. Their last match was a 1-0 home win against poor Terek Groznyi. This does not help their chances when facing a club as big as
Manchester United. They have a new manager in
Slutski who took over the reigns recently from Juande Ramos who didn't help the team early on in their season. In the Champion's League, they currently have 3 points, just behind
VFL Wolfsburg who have 4.
Wolfsburg are travelling to Turkey to face
Besiktas who drew with Wolfsburg on their last visit 0-0. With it being extremely likely that Wolfsburg could get just 1 point or even no points at all,
CSKA will try to get something out of this game.
CSKA must know how small their chances are here facing
Manchester United at home. Their only hope is to get a draw or at the very least, not get too far back on Goal Difference. This, coupled with the fact that Sir Alex will be resting some players for Saturday's match with league leaders
Chelsea, makes a bet on Under 2.5 goals the most obvious choice.
Manchester United vs. CSKA Moscow
Tuesday November 3, 2009
Kickoff: 20:45 CET
Tip: Under 2.5
Best Odds: 1.90 @ Betsson
