Manchester United, riding high at the top of the English Premiership, will be hoping to maintain their push for another treble when they travel to Italy to play Roma in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Wednesday.
Still involved in the FA Cup at home, United fans are already dreaming of a repeat of 1999, when they won the League, FA Cup and Champions League, with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich.
After two years of domestic domination by big-spending Chelsea, United have rediscovered their touch, thanks largely to the performances of Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who has enjoyed a stunning season.
With Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes having an Indian summer to their career, England striker Wayne Rooney leading the attack and a solid defence in front of Edwin van der Sar, manager Sir Alex Ferguson will be dreaming of more European success.
However, Ferguson has to cope with a mounting injury count going into the match with defender Nemanja Vidic out for at least a month with a broken collarbone.
Gary Neville is still out with an ankle problem so Ferguson will have to choose between Wes Brown, who has been deputizing for Neville, Gabriel Heinze, Patrice Evra and John O’Shea to join Rio Ferdinand in defence.
Louis Saha is only just recovering from injury but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made his own comeback from injury with a goal in the 4-1 win over Blackburn and should be on the substitutes’ bench.
Rooney will continue to lead the attack but the England man has been struggling for goals of late and Ferdinand said Ronaldo, who has scored 16 goals in the Premiership this season, is the key to their hopes.
”Cristiano has certainly been the best player in Europe,” Ferdinand said. ”No one has produced the kind of football he has produced on a regular basis and there is no other player as exciting as him.”
Roma go into the match after causing a mini-upset with victory over Lyon in the previous round and with their captain Francesco Totti wanting to prove a point after being left out by Ferguson when asked which players his side feared most from the Italians.
”Ferguson, you will learn who Totti is. He will see personally. I hope to make him remember my name,” the forward, who is Serie A’s leading scorer this season, said.
”We are coming into the match in the right condition at the best possible moment, and we will try to reach another important objective.
”To have got to this point after so many years is a great achievement, but we don’t want to stop here because there are even bigger satisfactions further on in the competition.” — Sapa-dpa