Old rivals meet in Kiev

Penalty winner
Despite being the away side in Kiev in Wednesday night's Group B opener, Lokomotiv will have every confidence after overcoming Dynamo's main domestic rivals, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, in the third qualifying round. A late penalty from Sergei Ignashevitch took the Russian side through 3-2 on aggregate. Another reason for optimism is that the Moscow team progressed beyond the first stage last year.

Parks out
Lokomotiv coach Yuri Semin has only one player definitely missing. Striker Winston Parks has returned to his native Costa Rica for surgery on a knee injury suffered during training, and is expected back in the Russian capital in three weeks. Another forward, Jorge Wagner, and his fellow Brazilian Leandro, both recent additions to the squad, look likely to be involved at some stage. One cause for concern, though, is Dmitri Khokhlov, who missed out for Russia in their recent UEFA EURO 2004™ qualifiers.

Rest and recovery
Another possible negative is that Lokomotiv are off the pace domestically, lying in sixth place and nine points behind leaders PFC CSKA Moskva. However, they did not play at the weekend and Semin will hope they have benefited from the extra time for training and rehabilitation. He said: "Matches involving Russian and Ukrainian clubs are always interesting. Our rivalry always seems to bring out the best in each team."

Forward strength
Meanwhile, Dynamo coach Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko will be hoping his side can iron out any defensive weaknesses. The Ukrainian club have enjoyed some encouraging early form in their domestic league, where they lie second behind Shakhtar with just one defeat in eight games, and Mykhaylychenko is aware they have strength up front having scored 20 goals so far this season.

Nanni worry
However, their defending in a 4-3 win over FC Karpaty Lviv last weekend left something to be desired and the Dynamo coach also has injury worries to contend with. Midfield player Andriy Husin, defender Olexandr Holovko and Argentinian striker Roberto Nanni may all not play - Husin and Holokov have failed to recover from knocks while Nanni has suffered from a lack of match practice.

Good news
"Nanni is training with team but the probability that he will play is very small," said Mykhaylychenko. "We will decide this tomorrow, but I think he is not 100 per cent ready yet." Better news is that both Serhiy Fedorov and Andriy Nesmachniy are expected to take their places in defence after shaking off minor injuries.

Hard work
Mykhaylychenko added: "We have worked a lot and had to go a very long way to get to this point, after the Ukrainian championship and [Champions League] qualification round. Now we will put all our efforts into going further."

Eager to progress
Like Lokomotiv, Dynamo also came through the qualifying round, seeing off NK Dinamo Zagreb with a 5-1 aggregate victory. It is their seventh successive season in the Champions League but they have fallen at the first hurdle for the past three campaigns.

Precious points
There is plenty to prove for both teams and any points gained at the Olympiyski stadium will be precious, especially with fixtures to come against the might of Internazionale FC and Arsenal FC.