Real Madrid will travel to Russia to take on CSKA Moscow in the 1^st leg of the knock round of the Champions League. The temperature in Russia is much different from the temperature in Spain, the players will have to acclimatize quickly and get on with usual business.

Scoring away from home is the key in the Champions League and it should not be a problem considering the recent results.
Real Madrid were the only team to have won all their first 6 games in the Champions League this season, the club managed to keep 5 successive clean sheets in the opening 5 games. It would be really interesting to see if they can keep their 100 per cent Champions League record thus far intact in hostile conditions.

The home team have serious problems, their first choice keeper in Igor Akinfeev is out injured and will not feature in tonight’s clash, he has torn his knee ligaments and is expected to be out for several months. Mark Gonzalez is also certain to miss the clash tonight; the player has had hip problems in the recent past. CSKA’s influential playmaker in Honda is also expected to miss tonight’s game; the player has had trouble with his knee and is recuperating.

 Aleksandrs Cauna is recovering after breaking his toe in January; he is also going to sit out of tonight’s clash. Pavel Mamaev and Kirill Nababkin will also miss this game because both the players are serving a one-match suspension.
Real Madrid have problems of their own, Di Maria who came on against Racing and scored a peach of a goal got injured in the dying minutes of the game, he is set to miss the game because of a leg injury.

Lass Diarra and Hamit Altintop will also miss the game because of back and calf injuries respectively.
Karim Benzema who has been scoring goals for fun is expected to start the game ahead of Higuain. It would be interesting to see how the away side copes with the brass monkey weather in Russia, the match kicks off at 17:00 GMT.