Champions League First Knockout Round – Second Leg (First Leg: 1-0)
Sir Alex Ferguson has warned his Manchester United players to “take nothing for granted” despite holding a 1-0 lead from the first leg of their Champions League tie against Lille.
Ferguson believes they have a “good, good chance” of reaching the last eight of this tournament for the first time since that season. However, the veteran coach added: “It does remind you that you can never take anything for granted in any European game, as we saw last year and in the games against Copenhagen and Celtic this year.”
Ferguson will go into the match without Louis Saha, who underwent a scan on Tuesday on a leg injury suffered in training the previous day.
“It is a blow for us,” said the United manager, who has Henrik Larsson to lead the attack on his final appearance at Old Trafford before returning to Sweden next week.
Paul Scholes is expected to recover from a knock picked up at Liverpool, but Patrice Evra is considered “doubtful” and Sir Alex predicted “two or three changes”.
Lille will be without midfielders Mathieu Bodmer and Yohan Cabaye both injured. Stéphane Dumont should fill in for the latter while Puel is likely to replace the Bodmer with either Ludovic Obraniak or Nicolas Fauvergue.
“We have some problems with the team,” admitted coach Claude Puel, although he admitted that the return from suspension of Ivorian international Kader Keita would improve his striking options.
Probable teams
Manchester United:
Edwin van der Sar; Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Gabriel Heinze/Patrice Evra; Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs; Wayne Rooney, Henrik Larsson.
Lille:
Tony Sylva; Matthieu Chalme, Efstathios Tavlaridis, Nicolas Plestan, Gregory Tafforeau; Jean II Makoun, Stephane Dumont; Michel Bastos, Ludovic Obraniak/Nicolas Fauvergue, Kader Keita; Peter Odemwingie.
