Real Madrid is looking to end its poor away record in the Champions League by beating Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday.
Real Madrid is looking to end its poor away record in the Champions League by beating Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday.
The nine-time champion has not won in seven matches on the road since beating Steaua Bucharest 4-1 in Romania in October 2006.
“It’s difficult to play on the road,” Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster said through a translator. “We must win in St. Petersburg or Turin. It’s better not to postpone the task.”
Madrid beat Champions League newcomer BATE Borisov 2-0 in its first Group H game, while UEFA Cup and European Super Cup champion Zenit lost the opener to Juventus 1-0.
“Statistics mean nothing,” Zenit coach Dick Advocaat said. “In any case, Real Madrid is the favorite in our group. The rest of the teams will contend for places from two to four.”
Schuster said the match will be difficult.
“Zenit lost its first match to Juventus and that will force them to play with extra motivation,” said Schuster.
Madrid will be without its core midfield of Wesley Sneijder, Jose Maria “Guti” Gutierrez and Fernando Gago. They are all skipping the trip to St. Petersburg to recover from leg injuries.
“It will be a very difficult game,” Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster said. To make it out of the group
New Madrid signing Rafael van der Vaart has carried the midfield responsibilities and scored a team-leading four goals.
Spain midfielder Ruben de la Red can play his first Champions League match for Madrid after serving a suspension, while Schuster will have to bench one of his strikers - Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gonzalo Higuain or all-time Champions League leading scorer Raul Gonzalez - despite all three being in good form.
Van Nistelrooy’s importance to the Spanish champion showed again on Saturday after the former Netherlands striker got his third goal of the season in injury time to lead Madrid over Real Betis 2-1 and into second place with its fourth straight league win.
“I’m not the team savior. I work as hard as my teammates and only do what I’m expected, to score goals,” Van Nistelrooy said. “We know about winning in the last minute and it will bring us a lot of strength playing against Zenit.”
Advocaat said his team would play careful defense and will try to capitalize on rare chances.
“I’m sure Real will not give us many chances, and we must not waste them as we did against CSKA,” he said.
Zenit lost to CSKA Moscow 3-1 last week and has a very slim chance of defending its Russian title.
“We practically lost our chance,” Advocaat said. “But we will fight for second or third place to play in the Champions League next season.”
The Russian champion beat Lokomotiv Moscow 3-0 on Saturday without forward Andrei Arshavin, who was suspended but returns Tuesday.
“The game may become a key one for his (Arshavin’s) future,” said Konstantin Arsaniya, Zenit’s transfer manager. “Right after this match, a decision may be made to let Arshavin go and play in Europe after the end of the domestic season (in November).”
Zenit had previously declined to sell Arshavin to FC Barcelona and Tottenham.
Advocaat announced Monday that he had sidelined defender Ivica Krizanac for a locker-room argument with goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev after the CSKA match. Krizanac blamed Malafeev for the defeat.
Zenit striker Fatih Tekke, who has been sidelined with a knee injury since August, is expected to be back in the starting lineup on Tuesday, but Vladislav Radimov pulled a muscle during practice Monday.
Another Zenit striker, Pavel Pogrebnyak, who missed this year’s European Championship because of injury, is eager to score on Tuesday against Madrid’s goalkeeper.
“I have been thinking about facing Real Madrid since the draw,” Pogrebnyak said. “I missed playing Spain and scoring against Iker Casillas at Euro 2008, but now I hope to do it on the club level.”
