SSC Napoli ended Manchester City FC’s hopes in the UEFA Champions League group stage and will be looking to do the same to another English team when they welcome Chelsea FC in the first leg of their round of 16 encounter.
The Serie A club host the Blues on today in the first leg of their tie after surviving the ‘Group of Death’, progressing from Group C with Bayern Munich, at the expense of Manchester City and Villarreal.
Napoli head into the home leg of the knockout fixture on the back of a convincing 3-0 victory at Fiorentina, but Mazzarri remained coy about his side’s chances against Chelsea.
PFC CSKA Moskva’s Sergei Ignashevich knows cold can play tricks on the mind as Real Madrid CF visit chilly Russia, telling UEFA.com: “You dream about it being over so you can go inside.”
Real Madrid CF won all six games in the group stage and will be determined to remain in the ascendancy when their round of 16 assignment takes them to Russia to face PFC CSKA Moskva.
Real Madrid CF launch their bid to extend their winning UEFA Champions League run into the knockout rounds with an away tie against PFC CSKA Moskva.
Although the nine-time European champions won all six group fixtures, CSKA will draw inspiration from a record against Spanish opponents which shows no defeats in a total of five games, home and away.
At this stage two years ago CSKA put out another Spanish team, Sevilla FC, with a 2-1 away win thanks to goals from Tomáš Necid and Keisuke Honda.
These teams have never met before but CSKA will be eyeing revenge on José Mourinho, whose FC Internazionale Milano team prevailed in their 2009/10 quarter-finals on their way to lifting the trophy. It was the furthest the Moscow club has progressed in the competition.
Madrid have finished as winners on their last two visits to Russia, beating FC Zenit St Petersburg 2-1 in the 2008/09 group stage and FC Lokomotiv Moskva 1-0 in the 2002/03 second group stage
