Background: Wolfsburg, CSKA Moskva meet again

VfL Wolfsburg kick off their second UEFA Champions League campaign in the very same way that they began their first – with a home match against PFC CSKA Mosvka.

Previous meetings
• Wolfsburg beat CSKA in their first ever UEFA Champions League fixture on 15 September 2009. Grafite hit a hat-trick for Armin Veh's hosts, Alan Dzagoev scoring for a CSKA team coached by Juande Ramos.

• CSKA still ended up second in the group with Wolfsburg third, having turned the tables with a 2-1 victory in Moscow two months later. Tomáš Necid and Miloš Krasić struck second-half goals to overturn Edin Džeko's opener for the German side.

• The lineups for the clubs' first encounter in Germany in September 2009 were:
Wolfsburg: Benaglio, Riether, Madlung, Barzagli, Schäfer, Misimović, Josué, Gentner (Hasebe 90), Martins (Ziani 65), Džeko, Grafite (Santana 89).
CSKA: Akinfeev, Šemberas, Ignashevich, V Berezutski (Necid 84), A Berezutski, Aldonin (Mamaev 68), Rahimić, Krasić, Dzagoev, Schennikov (Piliev 57), Guilherme.

Match background

Wolfsburg
• Wolfsburg finished second in the Bundesliga last season to earn a second tilt at the UEFA Champions League group stage, having first featured in 2009/10.

• Last season Dieter Hecking's men reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League, their run ended by a 6-3 aggregate defeat by SSC Napoli.

• En route to the last eight, Wolfsburg put nine goals past Russia's FC Krasnodar in the group stage, winning 4-2 away and 5-1 at home. That latter success made it three wins out of three for Wolfsburg at home to Russian sides.

CSKA Moskva
• For CSKA this is their third consecutive campaign in the UEFA Champions League group stage. In each of the past two seasons they failed to advance, finishing bottom both in 2013 and last term.

• CSKA's elimination from Europe was confirmed on German soil last season when they fell 3-0 at FC Bayern München on matchday six. Bayern had already defeated them 1-0 at the Arena Khimki.

• CSKA have lost on all four previous visits to Germany, including another 3-0 reverse at Bayern in their opening game of the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League campaign.

• Igor Akinfeev, Aleksei and Vasili Berezutski are survivors of CSKA's first trip to Germany when their hopes of reaching the 2006/07 last 16 vanished as they leaked two late goals at Hamburger SV in a 3-2 matchday six defeat.

Coach and player links
• As FC Moskva coach, Slutski lost to Hertha BSC Berlin in the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup (0-0 a, 0-2 h).

• Dante faced CSKA in four matches with Bayern, winning every one.

• André Schürrle hit a hat-trick for Germany in a 5-3 FIFA World Cup qualifying win over Pontus Wernbloom's Sweden in October 2013. Max Kruse and Julian Draxler also appeared.

• Vierinha was on the winning side against Akinfeev, Vasili Berezutski and Sergei Ignashevich in Portugal's 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Russia in June 2013.

• Nicklas Bendtner scored in Denmark's 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw with Georgi Milanov's Bulgaria in the same campaign in October 2012.

• Players who have played together:
Luiz Gustavo & Mário Fernandes (Brazil)

Match facts

Wolfsburg
• Wolfsburg overcame Bayern on penalties on 1 August to win their first German Super Cup.

• Holders Wolfsburg started their defence of the German Cup with a 4-1 victory at third-tier Stuttgarter Kickers on 8 August. They play Bayern at home in the second round on 27 October.

• The Wolves gained seven points from their opening three Bundesliga games for the first time.

• Wolfsburg are 24 league fixtures unbeaten at home (18 wins, six draws) since a 6-1 loss to Bayern on 8 March 2014.

• Bendtner has scored eight goals for Wolfsburg since joining the club in summer 2014 – all of them have come as a substitute.

• Diego Benaglio missed the first four games of the season with a back problem but returned to action as Wolfsburg's reserve side beat TSV Havelse 6-1 on 5 September.

CSKA Moskva
• CSKA started the 2015/16 Russian Premier-Liga season with a club record seven consecutive victories prior to Saturday's draw with FC Zenit.

• The Army Men's sole defeat in 12 matches this term is the 2-1 loss to Sporting Clube de Portugal in the first leg of their play-off tie.

• Akinfeev, voted CSKA's player of the month for August by the club's fans, has conceded a goal in each of his last 31 UEFA Champions League appearances, qualifying included. His last clean sheet in the competition came when CSKA drew 0-0 at Arsenal FC on 1 November 2006.

• CSKA have failed to convert four of their last five penalties:
Bibras Natcho v AC Sparta Praha (28 July)
Seydou Doumbia v Sporting (18 August)
Bibras Natcho v FC Kuban Krasnodar (30 August)
Alan Dzagoev v FC Zenit (12 September)

**Natcho did score from the spot in the 2-0 home win against FC Amkar Perm on 9 August.

• Doumbia has found the net four times in six games since returning to CSKA on loan from AS Roma on 10 August. Ahmed Musa has scored five goals in his last eight club outings.

• Wernbloom extended his contract until the end of the 2017/18 campaign on 9 September.

• Slutski was appointed Russia coach for the rest of UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying on 7 August and began his tenure with 1-0 and 7-0 victories against Sweden and Liechtenstein respectively in early September.