Ain't no mountain higher for Leeds

The players of Manchester United may well have been lining up lately to say how underwhelmed they all are by the dreary weekly deluge of European Champions' League football at this its preliminary group stage, but it is a very different experience an hour up the road in west Yorkshire. Then again, the Mancunians have neither Barcelona nor AC Milan in their group.

There is not a hotel room to be had in the city of Leeds this evening. There is not a ticket to be bought for the match at Elland Road. There was not a seat vacant in the press conference held at the ground by David O'Leary yesterday afternoon.

In fact, according to UEFA, who like to publicise these kind of figures - it helps with the sponsors - no fixture to date has aroused such interest in this season's competition as tonight's potential eliminator between Leeds United and Barcelona. Seventeen countries have requested a media presence here. A continent-wide audience from Bethlehem to Belmullet of some 60 million viewers is expected.

The estimate is so large because there is so much at stake. In a way it is an oldfashioned European Cup tie, particularly for the Catalans. Barcelona may start every competition as one of the favourites but they arrived at Leeds-Bradford airport yesterday morning in the painful knowledge that should they lose this evening they will have fallen at the first fence. Not only would that hurt their pride and enormous reputation, it would probably spell the end for manager Lorenzo Serra Ferrer and it would also make paying wages such as Rivaldo's weekly £80,000 - after tax - all the more difficult.

For Leeds the financial implications of success are no less meaningful. There would be another three home gates in the next group stage and all the attendant spin-offs that come with it.

Even leaving the money aspect aside there is the thrill of hosting Barcelona for only the second time in Leeds's history. Certainly O'Leary seemed enthused by the prospect although his words were rather less excited. "It's been a very depressing morning," was the first sentence O'Leary uttered yesterday. "You're meant to be preparing for one of the biggest and best clubs in the world and yet our training today was a nothing event. We picked up another few knocks on Saturday. It's no way to prepare for a match such as this."

O'Leary said the Leeds training ground would be a busy place this morning with players of various stages of fitness being asked to go through tests to see if they are capable of performing tonight. Leeds had a virtual first team out for their trip to Old Trafford on Saturday morning but as many as four of those injured could return.

Ian Harte, Danny Mills, Eirik Bakke and Olivier Dacourt are the most likely to be contenders and there is even an outside bet that captain Lucas Radebe will have recovered fully from the double bout of concussion he received first in Barcelona and then against Tottenham Hotspur 10 days ago.

Having said that, the basis for the optimistic conjecture on Radebe is that O'Leary ruled him out conclusively yesterday - "Not a consideration" - which is a similar statement O'Leary made about Nigel Martyn before Leeds faced AS Roma last season. Martyn duly played.

He weaves and feints many times on preview days such as these and from being humility itself when talking about Barcelona the club and their history to Spanish journalists, O'Leary was rather different when speaking about his young striker Alan Smith and the comments he attracted after Leeds's 4-0 defeat in the Nou Camp.

Frank de Boer called Smith's abrasive approach "unacceptable" and Philip Cocu intimated that Smith did not yet merit a place on the same pitch as Barcelona's players. O'Leary's reaction to that was forthright. "The only way for Smithy to answer that criticism, which is easy to say when you're in Barcelona, is to go out and put the ball in the back of their net and give them a hard time.

"Then he should go over to Cocu and De Boer, shake hands and say: `We're in the Champions' League, we'll let you know what it's like in the next round.'

"Smithy won't mind it because he knows we've got to see how brave they are over here. He can deal with anything. Roy Keane has had to live with a similar reputation. He's a great player and I don't think it's done him any harm. Alex Ferguson still hasn't cured Roy and I don't think Alan's completely cured."

Those fitness tests this morning will be almost as important as the match itself.

Probable Teams

LEEDS UNITED: Robinson; Kelly, Woodgate, Mills, Harte; Bowyer, Burns, Jones, Matteo; Viduka, Smith.

BARCELONA: Dutruel; Puyol, Abelardo, F de Boer; Xavi, Cocu; Sabrosa, L Enrique, Sergi; Rivaldo, Alfonso.

Referee: Terje Hauge (Norway)