Duo confident after opening draw

CSKA also drew 1-1 away in their Round of 32 tie against SL Benfica, coming on the back of a 2-0 victory in the Russian capital to seal a 3-1 aggregate triumph. Partizan also drew the first leg of their home tie against FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, 2-2, before Miroslav Radovic scored the only goal of the return in Ukraine to send the Serbo-Montenegrin side through. They will obviously hope for a repeat performance on Thursday.

CSKA, who had never played Serbo-Montenegrin opposition, began this season in the UEFA Champions League, reaching the group stage and only missing out on progress due to FC Porto's late winner against Chelsea FC. However, CSKA have taken to their new campaign, and are unbeaten in three UEFA Cup matches.

Partizan's previous encounter with Russian opposition does not bode well. Having lost 3-0 away and 2-0 at home in their only fixture with a Soviet club - FC Dynamo Kyiv in the 1976/77 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round - Partizan were drawn to play FC Spartak Mosvka in the 1999/00 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

Aleksandr Shirko and Andrei Tikhonov scored in Spartak's 2-0 first-leg win in Moscow and Shirko added two more in the return in Belgrade, with Yegor Titov scoring the other. Mateja Kezman claimed Partizan's consolation in a 3-1 home defeat.