Group F
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes the goals could flow when Group F’s bottom team, FC Copenhagen, visit Old Trafford.
United have struck 21 times in ten domestic and Champions League matches and, according to Ferguson, “have a look of goals” about them. “I couldn’t really ask for more going into a European game,” he said.
“Our form is good and we could have scored a lot of goals in the second half on Saturday.”
Ferguson will be looking for further signs of Wayne Rooney’s renaissance. The England striker has been in the doldrums recently, but there were signs in the weekend win over Wigan that he is slowly coming back to his best.
“When he swivelled and hit the bar, I said that is just the kind of luck he is having at the moment, but the way he performed in the second half showed it didn’t faze him at all,” said Ferguson. “His ability and his work rate are the two key elements of why we shouldn’t concern ourselves about him. I am very confident about the boy.”
Ferguson has concerns over the fitness of Gary Neville and Cristiano Ronaldo, but otehrwise his squad have a clean bill of health.
Having collected just one point to United’s six so far FC Copenhagen mmust adoopt a positive approach tonight.
“We are here to win,” said coach Stale Solbakken.
“We will probably win one out of ten or 15 games at Old Trafford but every game has its own life. We have to think positive – it is probably easier getting a point here than winning by two goals in Amsterdam [as Copenhagen did to overcome Ajax in qualifying].
“We have to maintain our strong defence – nobody has scored against us in open play – but obviously we also have to create something ourselves.”
Solbakken is awaiting the outcome of late tests on Oscar Wendt and William Kvist.
Probable teams:
Manchester United:
Edwin van der Sar; Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidi?, Patrice Evra; Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs; Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha.??
Copenhagen:
Jesper Christiansen; Lars Jacobsen, Brede Hangeland, Michael Gravgaard, Oscar Wendt; Michael Silberbauer, Tobias Linderoth, Hjalte Nørregaard, Atiba Hutchinson; Fredrik Berglund, Marcus Allbäck.
