How have Chelsea fared on previous trips to Russia?

Chelsea have gone off the boil of late, only collecting four points from Premier League fixtures against Manchester United, Watford and West Ham United respectively.

However, having thrashed Juventus in the game preceding that run, Thomas Tuchel's side will finish as winners of their Champions League group if they can overcome Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday evening.

The Blues will be playing their sixth competitive fixture in Russia, one of those previous occasions ending in a famous penalty-shootout defeat to Manchester United in the final of this competition in 2008.

Aside from that all-English showdown, Chelsea have squared off four times against Russian opposition on away territory, and Sports Mole takes a look at each of those fixtures here.

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Chelsea were drawn in a group alongside Paris Saint-Germain, Porto and CSKA Moscow in 2004-05, and maximum points and eight goals were recorded during the opening half of their Group H schedule.

The visit to Russia's capital proved to be less straightforward, Jose Mourinho's side having to rely on a 24th-minute effort from Arjen Robben to claim all three points.

That was also the Netherlands international's first goal in a Chelsea shirt, and the West Londoners would eventually finish five points clear at the top of the group.

Two years on from the heartache of the United defeat, Chelsea returned to the Luzhniki Stadium to square off against Spartak Moscow.

The Premier League giants had already breezed past Zilina and Marseille, but they faced a Spartak outfit who had also posted maximum points from their opening double-header.

First-half goals from Yuri Zhirkov and Nicolas Anelka secured a 2-0 victory, and the game is also noteworthy for Josh McEachran and Gael Kakuta being handed substitute outings by manager Carlo Ancelotti.

Having established a 3-1 lead in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea made the trip to Rubin Kazan expecting to cruise through to the Europa League semi-finals.

To an extent, they did just that, Fernando Torres and Victor Moses getting on the scoresheet to give Chelsea a 5-2 advantage on aggregate with 30 minutes remaining.

However, Rubin rallied during that closing period, moving to within two goals of the most unlikely of turnarounds with 15 minutes left, but a 3-2 triumph on the night was not enough to prevent Chelsea, the eventual winners of the competition, from progressing.

Having only posted a goalless draw with Sevilla on matchday one, the pressure was on Chelsea to deliver all three points when they travelled to Krasnodar in October 2020.

While the game was in the balance until the final 15 minutes, Chelsea netted three times to eventually prevail by a 4-0 scoreline, keeping them on track to progress as unbeaten group winners.

As on previous trips to Russia, a Chelsea player used the occasion to net their first goal for the club, Hakim Ziyech chipping in with an effort to add to strikes from Callum Hudson-Odoi, Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic.