BENFICA star Bruno Cesar reckons his side have to beat injury-hit Spartak Moscow tonight to stay on Celtic's tails.

The Portuguese cracks face the Russians in Lisbon in the other game in Celtic's Champions League group.

Both sides know defeat could be disastrous, but Spartak have travelled to Portugal with serious injury problems.

Former Celt Aiden McGeady will be out for another fortnight with a foot injury and they will be without long-term injury victims Romulo, Sergei Parshivlyuk and Soslan Gatagov.

Strikers Welliton and Emmanuel Emenike also both failed to make the trip after suffering from 'health problems'.

Now Brazilian ace Cesar reckons his side have to take advantage in the Stadium of Light.

He said: "Barcelona have already moved away from the rest of the teams, but there is a vacancy for second place in the group.

"The group is wide open and a win against Spartak would put us in a strong position.

I think ourselves and Spartak are similarly matched. It depends who is on form on the day.

"This is a crucial game for us. No one is saying we can win the Champions League, but we would like to qualify for the next round and a win would take us a long way to getting there."

Benfica also have their share of personnel problems, with Carlos Martins out and Nemanja Matic suspended.