CSKA hope to keep Moscow run going

PFC CSKA Moskva and Beşiktaş JK will meet for the first time in their Group B encounter on Matchday 2 with the home side hoping to reproduce the fine form they showed at home in 2008/09.

Match background
• CSKA recorded five straight home wins last term as they advanced to the UEFA Cup round of 16. To have any chance of progressing from Group B they will have to improve on their efforts in Moscow during their last UEFA Champions League campaign, when they took just one point from their home matches in 2007/08.

• Besiktas have their own grounds for improvement – the visitors suffered from a severe case of travel sickness on their last appearance in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2007/08, losing all three away games, including an 8-0 reverse at Liverpool FC.

• CSKA have had mixed fortunes against Turkish opposition. In the 2007/08 group stage they finished bottom of their section after a home draw and away defeat against Beşiktaş's city rivals Fenerbahçe SK.

• In the 1971/72 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round they beat Galatasaray AŞ 3-0 at home to complete a 4-1 aggregate success.

• Beşiktaş are unbeaten against Russian opposition, their most recent encounter with a Premier-Liga team coming in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage when they drew 1-1 at home to FC Zenit St. Petersburg.

• The newly returned Beşiktaş striker Nihat Kahveci will have fond memories of the club's only other encounter with a Russian outfit – a 6-1 aggregate triumph over FC Lokomotiv Moskva in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round in August 2000. Nihat found the net in both meetings, a 3-0 home win and the ensuing 3-1 triumph in Moscow.

Team ties
• CSKA coach Juande Ramos was in charge of the Sevilla FC side that recorded a 3-0 home win against Beşiktaş in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage, going on to lift the trophy.

• Beşiktaş coach Mustafa Denizli finished on the losing side in Moscow with former club Kocaelispor, suffering a 2-1 reverse at Lokomotiv in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round – and eventual aggregate defeat by the same score.

• Denizli returned to Russia as coach of the Turkish national team in April 1998 and lost 1-0.

• Beşiktaş defender Matteo Ferrari enjoyed a UEFA Cup victory against CSKA in the 2002/03 first round. Ferrari's Parma FC drew 1-1 in Moscow then prevailed 3-2 back in Italy. CSKA's Deividas Šemberas, Elvir Rahimić and Aleksei Berezutski featured in the second leg.

• Nihat was in the Villarreal CF side defeated on away goals by Zenit in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup round of 32.

• CSKA's Mark González featured as a substitute for Liverpool FC in a 3-2 victory against Fenerbahçe in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League group stage.