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CSKA Moscow v Real Madrid, Tuesday 18:00, Live on Sky Sports 2

CSKA Moscow

Igor Akinfeev, the club captain and Russia's number one, has been out for months and will be missing again on Tuesday. Coach Leonid Slutsky is also without foreign stars Keisuke Honda and Mark Gonzalez for the team's first competitive game of the year. Perhaps they'll be better for the break - between August and the end of 2011, CSKA were W4-D1-L5 at home in the Premier League and Champions League - or perhaps not.

Seydou Doumbia has scored more than half of CSKA's Champions League goals this season (5/9) and 12 of their last 19 in all competitive games, but the home team's best hopes might be the sub-zero temperature and the Luzhniki Stadium's plastic pitch.

Real Madrid

Spain's league leaders are in the knockout stages of the Champions League for a fifteenth straight season. They used to have a problem getting past the last 16, but Jose Mourinho willed them past Lyon this time last year and his charges are 1.09 favourites to make the quarter-finals again this time.

Real's group-stage performance - maximum points and a +17 goal difference - is the best in competition history. Mourinho's recent record isn't bad either: ignore three defeats to the incomparable Barcelona and he's unbeaten in 28. A couple of years ago, he masterminded a 1-0 win for Inter at the Luzhniki.

Angel di Maria was injured on comeback against Racing Santander on Saturday night, but the rest of the first team is fit and they've done alright without him in the last couple of months.

Match Odds

Real used to have problems in Russia - they didn't win any of their first seven games there - but have subsequently notched a couple of wins, against Lokomotiv in 2003 and Zenit in 2008.

To justify a 1.46 win price this time, Real must do what no Spanish team has done before - beat CSKA in Moscow. That might have been a concern, if only CSKA hadn't already lost at home to Inter and Lille in the group stages.

With six wins out of six in their campaign so far, Real are favourites for very good reasons.

Real Madrid Win to Nil

Iker Casillas is yet to concede a goal in the Champions League this season. Understudy Adan let in a couple when the team was 6-0 up at home to Dinamo Zagreb, but Real have kept clean sheets in 13/18 Champions League games since Mourinho arrived.

They've not conceded in any of their six previous away wins under the Portuguese and, if you fancy them to win on Tuesday, the Win to Nil should appeal at 2.5.

Recommended Bet: Back Real Madrid Win to Nil @ 2.5

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