Sir Alex Ferguson has said that he is not worried about Manchester United playing on an artificial surface against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League.

United take on CSKA on Wednesday and the game at the Luzhniki Stadium will be held on AstroTurf.

England were humbled by Russia on that surface in a Euro 2008 qualifier, while Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill rued the artificial nature of the pitch when his side lost to CSKA in the UEFA last year.

However, Ferguson is not in the least bit worried about the pitch and is quick to draw on past experiences of playing on such surfaces.

"I have no issues with the pitch in Moscow," said Ferguson. "When Luton and QPR had them all those years ago we always played well on them.

"We had a great record at those artificial pitches and that was when the artificial pitches weren't as good. The one in Moscow has a far better covering on it.

"I watched CSKA's previous Champions League game and I didn't see any issue with it at all. It is a passing surface and we have good passers in our side."

Man United visit CSKA without five key players who are missing through injury and Ferguson is expecting a tough game against the 2005 UEFA Cup champions.

He added: "They are a very young team and they deserved to win their game against Besiktas, so it should be a good game.

"But we're in a strong position ourselves after winning our opening two games and, if we can navigate the back-to-back games against CSKA, we're through, I think.

"The Champions League for a few years now has had a tremendous amount of quality in it. I think the Russian teams in particular have improved a lot in the last few years thanks to big investment.

"There are a lot of Brazilian players in Russia now. So you can expect a difficult game there and it's a surface which we're not used to playing on."