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Spartak Moscow travels to Spanish champion Barcelona in the Champions Cup on Wednesday in the knowledge that it must bring points back to Moscow to keep alive in Europe's premier club trophy competition.
Spartak is desperately seeking its first win in Group A of the European Champions' League. A heavy defeat against Monaco in Monte Carlo and home draws against Galatasaray of Turkey and Barcelona in Moscow have left the Muscovites third in the four-team group with only two points.
A win for Barcelona on Wednesday would represent the end of any realistic hopes the Muscovites have of progressing to the semifinals. A draw would mean Spartak would have to win its last two games against Monaco in Moscow on March 30 and against Galatasaray in Istanbul two weeks after that to be sure of qualifying. A Spartak victory would throw the whole group open, with the semifinal berths likely to be decided at the eleventh hour.
Both sides come into Wednesday's match off impressive runs. In Spain, Barcelona has been irresistibly gaining ground on league leader Deportivo and closed to within two points after a resounding 5-3 win against Atletico Madrid last weekend.
Spartak, for its part, has made a confident start to the new Russian season, winning its opening two matches away in the Russian first division that it has dominated since the league's inception in 1992.
But Spartak will have to produce better form than it has exhibited so far in the Champions' League if it is to get a result in Barcelona. Outclassed by Monaco last November, Spartak then put up a dour display against the Turks in a desperately disappointing 0-0 home draw in December in which the Muscovites rarely looked like making their obvious superiority count.
The only flicker of hope came in the first game against Barcelona in Moscow, where, although outplayed for much of the 90 minutes, Spartak showed character to come back from two goals down to force a draw with a spectacular last-gasp goal from Valery Karpin.
In Barcelona, Spartak will be up against the same lethal strike force of Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov and Brazilian Romario, both of whom scored in the 2-2 draw in Moscow. Spartak will have to be particularly vigilant of Romario, who hit a purple patch of form at the weekend with a hat trick in Barcelona's win against Atletico.
In the other Group A action Wednesday, Galatasaray entertains Monaco in Istanbul. Though Monaco routed the Turks only two weeks ago 3-0 in Monte Carlo, few sides have gone to Istanbul and won this season.
Meanwhile, in Group B of the Champions League, qualification favorite AC Milan takes on third-placed Werder Bremen in Germany while Portuguese champion FC Porto entertains Anderlecht of Belgium.
The Champions League is a quarterfinal-stage round-robin tournament in which each side plays each other twice with the leading two teams in each group advancing to semifinals.
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