Ronaldo: Russians Will Win Champs League Soon

Cristiano Ronaldo says Russia is capable of producing a Champions League-winning club in the near future. The Real Madrid ace made the claim ahead of Wednesday's Champions League last-16 second leg tie against CSKA Moscow in Spain. The sides go into the match 1-1 after Ronaldo's opener was canceled out by CSKA debutant Pontus Wernbloom in the dying seconds of the first leg. "Russian clubs are always strong, they're hard to outplay home and away," Ronaldo said Tuesday. "I think in the near future a Russian club could win the Champions League. But not this year," he added. The closest a Russian club has coming to the feat is CSKA's run to the 2010 quarterfinals, when they were knocked out 3-1 on aggregate by Inter Milan, then under the stewardship of Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho. CSKA and Zenit St. Petersburg have won the UEFA Cup, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. This is the first season that two Russian clubs have made the competition's knockout stages. Zenit lost to Benfica 4-3 on aggregate last week to crash out. Ronaldo, who has hit 40 goals in 38 appearances in all competitions this season, singled out CSKA's Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda as a threat for Wednesday's game in Madrid. "Honda's a decent player, he has a great left foot, and he's going to be dangerous for Real," he said. Honda, a transfer target for Serie A giants Lazio, should start but missed a training session Tuesday for a planned examination of a long-standing thigh injury.