The Blues face the Russians over two legs in the Club’s first ever Champions League adventure and the manager told ManCity.com he is looking forward to pitting his wits against European opposition.
“I’m excited because I don’t know a lot about them,” he declared. ”We’ll have do some research on a new team and start preparing for the travel and the whole away leg.
“It’s something new to go alongside planning for domestic league and cup games.
“That’s something we’re very good at as a football club. We’ve already started planning to give our players the best opportunity to win the games.
“We know this draw is one of the toughest we could have had but we were prepared for anybody.
“We know every game would be tough because it’s the Champions League and we weren’t seeded. Whoever we would have drawn would have been one of the top teams in their country with plenty of Champions League experience and a top pedigree.”
In terms of his side’s chances of progression, Cushing added: “We never underestimate teams - especially Russian teams, who in my experience are hard to beat and strong.
“We’ll approach the games as we would normally, looking to win.
“We play at home first and we see that as an advantage. We love playing at home and we can put ourselves into a strong position.”
