Zenit St Petersburg are steeling themselves for a tough Champions League game against Juventus on Tuesday night even though the Italian giants have already secured their place in the last 16.

Juve coach Claudio Ranieri travelled to Russia without seven first-team squad members due to injury and will turn to some of his fringe players.

While that looks on paper to make them weaker, Zenit's Czech defender Radek Sirl is convinced the players coming in will be highly motivated to impress.

He told www.uefa.com: "The first-choice players will be replaced by fringe players who will have double the motivation to show the coach that they deserve a place in the first XI."

Zenit need a win here to be sure of least having a chance to reach the knockout phase going into the last round of Group H fixtures, and Sirl is convinced the lack of pressure to perform on Juve makes them dangerous opponents.

"If Juventus needed a win they would be more nervous, but they are already through and that means that they are relaxed and can play their best football," he said. "Since we are playing to win, that makes it harder for us."

Juventus will be missing Gianluigi Buffon, David Trezeguet, Jonathan Zebina, Dario Knezevic, Cristiano Zanetti and Christian Poulsen for the game in St Petersburg.

Also unavailable is Portuguese midfielder Tiago, who suffered a knee injury early on in the Serie A clash with Inter Milan at the weekend and is expected to be missing for at least a month.

A statement on the player's condition on the Juve website read: "The Portuguese who was forced to leave the field barely a minute into the match against Inter underwent the usual check-ups: the orthopaedic check-up by Prof Flavio Quaglia and an X-ray at the CTO X-ray department directed by Prof Carlo Faletti.

"The outcome of the tests did not show any rupture of the front or back cruciate ligaments. The diagnosis was that of a deformation of the left knee. The time of recovery will range between 30 and 40 days."

Zenit warmed up for the visit of Juve with a 3-1 victory over Spartak Moscow at the weekend in the final round of Russian Premier-Liga fixtures which secured them a fifth-placed finish and qualification for the 2009-10 UEFA Europa League (the rebranded UEFA Cup).

Sebastien Puygrenier will be suspended for Zenit after his red card against BATE Borisov on matchday four.