Real eye away success

Published on Monday 29 September 2008 23:31

REAL Madrid are looking to end their poor away record in the Champions League by beating Zenit St Petersburg tonight.

The nine-time champions have not won in seven matches on the road since beating Steaua Bucharest 4-1 in Romania in October 2006. "It's difficult to play on the road," said Madrid coach Bernd Schuster. "We must win in St Petersburg or Turin. It's better not to postpone the task."

Real beat Champions League newcomers BATE Borisov 2-0 in their first Group H game, while Uefa Cup and European Super Cup winners Zenit lost their opener to Juventus 1-0.

"Statistics mean nothing," Zenit coach Dick Advocaat said. "In any case, Real Madrid are the favourites in our group. The rest of the teams will contend for places from two to four."

Schuster said the match will be difficult. "Zenit lost their first match to Juventus and that will force them to play with extra motivation," he explained.

Madrid will be without their core midfield of Wesley Sneijder, Jose Maria "Guti" Gutierrez and Fernando Gago. They are all missing the trip to St Petersburg to recover from leg injuries.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy's importance to Real was in evidence again on Saturday after the former Netherlands striker got his third goal of the season in injury time to seal a 2-1 win over Real Betis.

"I'm not the team saviour. I work as hard as my team-mates and only do what I'm expected, score goals," Van Nistelrooy said. "We know about winning in the last minute and it will bring us a lot of strength playing against Zenit."