Dinamo determined to hamper holders

Having opened their Group F campaign with a largely unexpected home defeat followed by an underwhelming draw, UEFA Cup holders PFC CSKA Moskva are back on course in the defence of the trophy thanks to a 2-1 home win against PFC Levski Sofia. The newly-crowned Russian champions now travel to play FC Dinamo Bucuresti, who are still looking for their first win and their first goal in the group stages but will nevertheless provide stout opposition as they look to remain in contention.

• CSKA lost at 2-1 home to Olympique de Marseille in their opening fixture before grinding out a goalless draw at SC Heerenveen on Matchday 2. Victory was therefore vital as Levski travelled to the Russian capital, and the holders maintained their interest in the competition with Brazilian forward Vágner Love scoring twice in the second half to help his side to a 2-1 win. The three points takes the holders into second place in the table, with Olympique de Marseille having already qualified from the group having won both games so far.

• Dinamo, meanwhile, opened with a goalless draw at home against Heerenveen before slipping to a narrow defeat at Levski on Matchday 2 as Emil Angelov's 90th-minute strike condemned the Romanian side to a defeat that leaves them bottom of the standings after three rounds of fixtures.

• The clubs meet for the first time in UEFA competition, and indeed the Matchday 4 fixture at the Dinamo stadium will be the first time that CSKA Moskva have faced any Romanian opponents.

• Dinamo, however, have played a Russian team and, although they suffered an aggregate defeat on that occasion, they will take heart from defeating another Moscow club on home soil. Having been paired with FC Spartak Moskva in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup second round, the Romanian side's hopes were seemingly extinguished in the first match in the Russian capital as Spartak ran out 4-0 winners.

• But in the return leg at the Dinamo stadium, the home side made inroads into the Spartak lead. Ionel Danciulescu scored twice and Gheorghe Iordache added another as Dinamo reduced the Spartak lead to one goal with 17 minutes left to play. However, Dmitry Parfenov finally closed the door with a late penalty to ensure a 5-3 aggregate win for Spartak.