The 2007/08 season will see CSKA attempt to reach the play-off stages for the first time in their history. The club has come close in previous seasons, but has proved unable to make the final breakthrough.
In 2004/05 and 2006/07, CSKA finished third in their group, going through to the UEFA Cup, Europe's second most prestigious tournament. In 2005, they lifted the trophy, beating Sporting Lisbon 3-1 in Portugal, and becoming the first-ever Russian team to win a major European club competition.
CSKA's stars that evening in Lisbon were its two Brazilians, the fantastically-named Vagner Love and Daniel Carvalho, as well as the side's young Russian goalkeeper and undisputed national side first choice, Igor Akinfeyev.
However, only Vagner Love is set to make the trip to Holland, with Carvalho and Akinfeyev sidelined with injuries that have seen them play almost no part in CSKA's season this year.
CSKA's trainer, the flamboyantly-mustached Valeri Gazzaev, went on a spying mission to Holland at the weekend to watch PSV beat Vitesse 1-0 at home.
"I didn't think it was a great performance," he was quoted by the UEFA website as saying. "I've seen them play better, and I think they will be a different proposition against us. They are well balanced and solid. I would say they start as favorites. But my players are in form, so will give a good account of themselves."
Russian soccer has enjoyed a boom of late, with investment by oil and gas companies making the championship the fifth richest in Europe in turns of turnover. However, CSKA's 2004 UEFA Cup triumph, hailed by many as the start of a dramatic shift in the base of European soccer power, proved to be something of a false dawn, with no Russian team having made a real impact in Europe since.
CSKA will be hoping to rectify that situation this season, starting on Wednesday in Eindhoven.
