Mourinho won’t accept slip-up in Moscow

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has told his players the rigours of the Russian winter and the artificial pitch will not be accepted as excuses for defeat in the last-16 Champions League tie against CSKA Moscow.

Mourinho’s men will find themselves playing in sub-zero temperatures in tonight’s first leg in the Luzhniki Stadium as they look to continue their perfect record in this season’s competition.

“We’ll have to be stronger than the adverse conditions we’ll face,’’ Mourinho said. “The grass and the temperature will be tough to deal with. These are new conditions for us, but mentality and ambition are stronger than all those factors.”

And it will not only be the conditions standing in Madrid’s way, with Mourinho wary of the threat posed by CSKA despite the hosts having not been in competitive action since the Russian league started its winter break at the end of November.

“CSKA’s squad have been together for a long time and that makes them very dangerous,” said Mourinho, a Champions League winner with Porto and Inter Milan.

“They should be respected. We will not kid around against them and we will give our all in the match.

“CSKA have a similar team to the one I faced with Inter Milan. They’ve lost Vagner [Love], but they have [Seydou] Doumbia and [Ahmed] Musa. They are a strong side financially and a strong opponent.”

Lassana Diarra and Angel di Maria miss the trip for the visitors, but Xabi Alonso, Kaka, Esteban Granero, Nuri Sahin and Sami Khedira have all travelled.

CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky accepts his side’s lack of recent competitive action could prove an advantage for Madrid, but took inspiration from Zenit St Petersburg’s 3-2 victory over Benfica in the first leg of their last-16 tie last Wednesday.

Asked at his press conference whether the situation would benefit the Spanish side, he replied: “In theory, yes.

“It is clear that we will be playing our first game after the break, and that Real have been playing match after match and are full of confidence.

“On the other hand there is the example of Zenit, who met with an ‘in season’ team and appeared more functional. So that tells us that you can prepare for such matches with no official games.

“Hopefully, we can also compensate for the lack of match practice with our level of readiness.”