CSKA have a highly efficient defence and four useful Brazilians.

They were Uefa Cup winners in 2005 but so far they have been also-rans in the Champions League.That might now change.

Igor Akinfeev is an outstanding goalkeeper whose career is a bit like Iker Casillas of Real Madrid. He was the club’s top keeper at seventeen and is 20 now but firmly established as Russia’s No1.

The Berezutsky brothers are twins born on 20-3-1982 and both defenders play for Russia. Bosnian midfielder Rahimovic is one of the team’s stalwarts. He is six foot three and collects most of their yellow cards.

Chunky Vagner Love, favoured by national coach Dunga in recent friendlies, is the best-known of the Brazilians but teenage midfielder Jo has 14 league goals in 16 starts and two sub appearances.However, Jo is now out for six weeks with a knee injury

On Saturday CSKA were losing 1-0 at home to Rubin but goals by Zhirkov and Dudu gave them a 2-1 win. Zhirkov is a wide right player and Dudu scored the goal that beat Hamburg on Matchday 2.

Mainly, CSKA are a steady, successful team.They rarely win by more than one goal or lose by more than one. In a lot of their games nothing much happens in the first half hour.

On Matchday 1 this season CSKA went to Porto and earned a 0-0 draw. They needed a point and got it. On Matchday 2 they were at home to Hamburg and won with a Dudu goal in 59 minutes.

CSKA have perhaps the deepest squad a Russian club has ever had in the Champions League. Croatian Ivica Olic, their No.9, is a half-striker who came on as a sub against England in Zagreb last week, and wide midfielder Milos Krasic is a useful Serb.

Interestingly, CSKA use three centreebacks with the Berezetsky brothers either side of the No.4, Ignashevich

COACH Valeri Gazzayev is a former international striker who has won two league titles with CSKA as well as that Uefa Cup, the first European trophy ever won by a Russian club.

He likes his team to line up in a 3-2-3-2 formation. The chunky Vagner Love, who is inventive with his back to goal, brings runners into the action. Sometimes he deploys Love alone in a 3-2-4-1.

In 2004-2005 CSKA were in a Champions League group with Porto, Chelsea and Paris St Germain.

They beat PSG by 2-0 and 3-1 but could not score against Chelsea, losing 1-0 and 2-0. They drew 0-0 in Porto on Matchday 1 but lost 1-0 in Moscow on Matchday 5 to a Benni McCarthy goal in 28 minutes.

That team, very similar to the one they have now, then dropped into the Uefa Cup, where they beat Benfica 3-1 on aggregate, and Partizan Belgrade by the same aggregate. They drew 1-1 away and won 2-0 at home in those Third and Fourth knock-out rounds.

In the quarter-final CSKA met Auxerre and played the first leg in Moscow and won 4-0, so it was over. Auxerre beat them 2-0 in France but the second goal didn’t come till 88 minutes.

A goalless game in Parma in the semi-final gave them a big opportunity in Moscow and they thrashed the Italians 3-0 in the second leg with Brazilian Daniel Carvalho scoring twice.

In the 2005 Uefa Cup Final in Lisbon they defeated Sporting Lisbon 3-1.

So CSKA did what Arsenal did in 1999-2000, their Galatasaray season, but took it a stage further and collected the trophy.

It’s a big week for Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea. And an even bigger week for Barcelona, who go to Real Madrid next Saturday night.

In the Premiership Arsenal are playing well and winning, Manchester United are playing well and winning, and Chelsea are playing badly and winning.

Petr Cech was caught on the temple by the knee of Reading winger Stephen Hunt and suffered a depressed skull fracture and had to be taken from Reading hospital to the John Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford for an operation on Saturday night.

It was a horrific, terrifying injury and we all hope that Cech, who is a great guy as well as a world class goalkeeper, can recover fully and quickly.

Carlo Cudicini was also concussed in the 92nd minute of the same game, which Chelsea won 1-0.

Their third choice keeper Hilario played for Porto against Manchester United when United won 4-0 at Old Trafford in 1997. Then 21, Hilario admitted he was frozen in fear of Eric Cantona, the United captain. I remember Hilario being directly responsible for three of the goals in that game.

But, of course,  most reports said that United played brilliantly.

In case you’re wondering. CSKA, known as “the army club”, originated as Central Sports Klub of the Army.

 

ROBINHO has adapted, looks happy, and scores in most games now.

The 22-year old Brazilian really started to click at Alaves on September 25 when they won 3-0. He is amazingly perceptive about who is in front of him and either side of him and behind him. It’s called peripheral vision.

Like Bebeto, Romario’s partner in USA 94, Robinho is Mr Perpetual Motion, skimming over the grass, darting here and there like a high-powered hummingbird, always keeping in contact with the play, as Ossie Ardiles used to do. The difference being that Ardiles was a midfield player and midfield players do that a lot while strikers don’t.

Robinho is a manager’s dream because he links the play and wants to be in the game all the time. A continuity player as well as a scorer, Robinho is zippy and has brightened up the team, big time.

CICINHO has done the same on the right flank, where ageing warrior Salgado has run out of steam.

ZIDANE was superb when they won 2-1 at Celta Vigo on January 29, carrying the ball with pace and purpose, still a master, a Rolls Royce of a player, even now.

ROBERTO CARLOS has been a bionic gladiator for ten years there under ten coaches. A leader who likes Casillas to throw the ball to him, so he can start attacks. That’s why I would play Flamini and Eboue against him. You can’t play Ljungberg against Roberto Carlos.

JONATHAN WOODGATE is 25 and has played only 13 games for them. Newcastle sold him for £13 million but he has been out for 561 days with a thigh muscle injury. But Madrid have kept 10 clean sheets in the 13 games he has played! That is what I call a stat !

GUTI is solid and brave with a reliable left foot.

GRAVESEN is the anchor player Sir Alex should have signed.

SERGIO RAMOS was bought from Seville for £18.7 million just eight minutes before the transfer deadline expired. Only 19 but shows signs of becoming a good centreback

BECKHAM is in tremendous form but suffering from back pain. John Toshack says that his backache is caused by practicing free-kicks and corners. Replying to that, Becks says the pain is worst in the morning and he doesn’t play football at night.

JULIO BAPTISTA has not looked like a £13.8 million player and was recently sidelined for five weeks with a knee ligament injury.

Baptista now says, ”We arrive for this game in an excellent mood, The game is equal because always in Europe the matches are very complicated. But we want to finish the tie in the Bernabeu. This Madrid team is able to score many goals in each match.”

RONALDO walks and waits and walks a bit more. Sometimes he jogs ten yards. But Ronnie is a bit like Eric Clapton. If you are great as he was, you can never entirely lose it.

RAUL is still a yard off the pace and will not start against Arsenal, after being out for three months with a knee injury.

CASILLAS is the goalkeeper. A bachelor, he mostly dates models but they say he also went out with the King’s daughter. If so, she’s in good hands. He wouldn’t drop her and if he did he’s so quick he’d catch her again before she hit the floor. If you were King Juan Carlos, would you let your daughter go out with a footballer ?

BEFORE XMAS, former coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo played a 4-2-2-2 system which had no width. They needed a gutsy, fast winger who could operate from both flanks, cut in, hit shots, score goals, play one-twos. I used to watch them in September-October and think : They really need Damian Duff.

They had been building down to a massive flop by losing games at home. Real Madrid 2 Celta Vigo 3 in September was a rehearsal for a 2-1 defeat by Valencia in October, so when Barcelona arrived in November and thrashed them 3-0 it was no surprise. In fact, Barca got a standing ovation from the home crowd. Ronaldinho had been playing out of his skin for two weeks, Eto’o is the world’s most direct striker, and teenage hot-shot Messi had at last superceded Giuly, a right winger I don’t rate.

Ronaldo, Zidane and right back Salgado were only 60% fit on that Saturday night (November 19) and should not have been on the pitch. In the next home game they only drew 1-1 with Lyon, a very good side who can draw with any club and beat most.

In a shambolic performance against Getafe on December 3, Beckham became hugely frustrated and was sent off for a crazy tackle in 55 minutes. Madrid won 1-0 but the performance was appalling, even compared to other fiascos in the last two years.

Luxemburgo was sacked on December 4.

Caretaker coach Lopez Caro, promoted from the B-team, has created a more balanced side and performances have improved. They’ve won nine of their last eleven and Zidane, Robinho and Beckham are in hot form.

Last Saturday they were at home to Alaves and he rested half his team: Zidane, Roberto Carlos, Woodgate, Cicinho and Gravesen. They won 3-0 with skipper Guti scoring the first goal, Robinho the second and Cicinho, subbing for Beckham, the third.

I LOVED SPANISH football long before I started watching it on Sky in 1996-97. That was Capello’s only season at Real Madrid and Ronaldo’s only season at Barcelona and Rivaldo’s only season at Deportivo La Coruna.

Ronaldo was sensational, scoring 34 goals in 37 games, and when he was sold to Inter Milan, Rivaldo was bought to replace him.

The Real Madrid team at that time had three prolific scorers in Suker, Raul and Mijatovic.The year before Real had finished sixth and missed out on Europe, which helped Capello to focus them on the title and accumulate 92 points from 42 games, ahead of Bobby Robson’s Barcelona on 90.

As I’m sure you know, Real Madrid have always been backed by the government, the city, the banks and the King. The world’s richest club, with a turnover of £186 million, Real have not won a trophy since 2003 and have never gone three years without winning something.