It’s not just a ”Battle of Britain” when Manchester United host Celtic in the European Champions League on Wednesday. It’s also a tussle between Scottish managers with a long personal history.
It’s the first time the English and Scottish powerhouses have met in a competitive match, and the first time Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and Celtic manager Gordon Strachan have faced each other in Europe.
Ferguson coached Strachan at Scottish club Aberdeen — who won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983 — and later, in his first three years at Manchester United. And Ferguson once played for Celtic’s rivals, Rangers.
Strachan, who wrote that Ferguson ”could not be trusted an inch” in his autobiography seven years ago, said the history between the two was ”irrelevant”. Strachan said the two recently reminisced about ”the old days” but that he didn’t pattern his coaching style after Ferguson’s.
”I’ve never thought about what Fergie did as my manager,” Strachan said. ”Everybody’s got their own way of doing things.”
The pair met as managers when Strachan was in charge of Coventry for five years through 2001. Of the teams’ 12 Premier League meetings in that time, Coventry won one and lost 11.
Celtic and Rangers dominate the Scottish league and there’s long been talk of the two joining the English Premier League.
”We have to dismiss the whole Scotland-England thing,” Ferguson said. ”If we go down that road, we will only make it harder for ourselves because you can get caught up in the emotion of the occasion.”
United have played against Scottish opposition before. In 2003, United beat Rangers 3-0 at Old Trafford and 1-0 at Ibrox in the Champions League group stage.
Celtic defender Thomas Gravesen, who joined the club after a season at Real Madrid, says Scottish soccer isn’t weak.
”I don’t think we need to prove anything,” said Gravesen, a Dane who played at Everton from 2000 to 2005. ”But if there are people in England who don’t think much about the Scottish league, then we will try our best to prove them wrong — that’s for sure.”
The match will offer Strachan his second taste of Champions League soccer as manager. Last year, in Strachan’s first match in charge, Celtic lost 5-0 to Artmedia Bratislava in Slovakia in qualifying. Celtic won the second leg 4-0 but didn’t reach the group stage.
”I’m new to the Champions League and so are nearly all my players,” Strachan said. ”The United boys have got years and years of experience of it. But there’s no pressure off us going there.”
Manchester United are determined to make amends for their poor showing in last season’s competition, where they failed to advance from the group stages for the first time since the 1994/95 season.
”If someone had told me this time last year we would have finished bottom of our group, I would never have believed them,” Ferguson said. ”No one likes bad memories but good footballers should always look at situations like that and say ‘I do not want that to happen again’.”
United — who have started the Premier League season with four victories in four matches — will be without Cristiano Ronaldo, who is suspended. — Sapa-AP