CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/Manchester United v AC Milan:THERE ARE some nights in the Champions League when it is more than just a football match; it is an occasion. Manchester United versus Milan, under the Old Trafford floodlights, is one of them – even if Alex Ferguson is right and David Beckham is left out by the Rossoneri tonight.
Milan will have to be bold and adventurous if they are to recover a 3-2 deficit from the first leg and Ferguson’s hunch is the most recognisable player on the planet will be sacrificed in a game that reads like a Who’s Who of the Champions League elite.
Beckham being Beckham, he needed a police escort when he arrived at Manchester airport yesterday, the latest instalment of what his former manager witheringly described as “the David Beckham media circus” a few weeks ago.
He was also due for a charm offensive at Milan’s press conference until it was pointed out Uefa rules do not allow the same player to face the microphones before the home and away legs and that Beckham had told us enough times how thrilled he would be to run out at Old Trafford again.
Ferguson, however, does not envisage his former player starting the tie. “He has not started a game since the last time he played us,” the United manager pointed out. “I don’t know if Beckham will play. I haven’t got him down in my conclusions.”
Whether it was deliberate or not, the impression from United’s manager was there were other players who concerned him more anyway. Pato is expected to have recovered from a thigh strain, while Ferguson has already pinpointed the fit-again striker Marco Borriello, absent from the first leg, as a serious threat – and that is all before considering the way Ronaldinho tormented Rafael da Silva in the first leg.
Older, leaner, wiser maybe, Ronaldinho has played a part in 24 of Milan’s 46 league goals this season, scoring nine and setting up 15. Ferguson could ask Gary Neville to replace Rafael but, at 35, the former England defender now counts as a veteran and his lack of mobility threatens an even more harrowing ordeal should Ronaldinho be in the same mood.
Wes Brown was lined up to play at right back but suffered a broken metatarsal in Saturday’s win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The better news for United is that Wayne Rooney is fit after missing the weekend game because of a knee injury.
“I looked at him on Friday and didn’t think he had any chance,” Ferguson reported. “But he has progressed and he plays and, on this form, he would be a threat to anyone. That is what he will provide for us: a real threat up front.”
Rooney, in all likelihood, will operate as the lone striker in the 4-3-2-1 system Ferguson prefers on European nights, which would mean no place again for Dimitar Berbatov, increasingly a fact of life for a player who has started only six of 19 Champions League ties.
Michael Carrick is suspended, while Ryan Giggs, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves are injured, which reduces the options in the midfield, but there should be no undue concern even if Ferguson was determined not to say anything presumptuous.
United’s is a formidable position of strength considering that, in 54 years of European football at Old Trafford, no side has ever beaten them by the two clear goals that Milan will need if they are to turn this tie upside down.
Ferguson, though, senses a renaissance in Serie A.
“European football is an ever-changing process. The challenge last year was to get past Barcelona to win the trophy and the Italians were not as good as the Spaniards. But there has been a little shift and the Italian teams are better this year. That’s why winning in Milan was a big step forward for Manchester United.
“It was the first time in four attempts that we had done it. I was delighted with it because, historically, we were playing against one of the best European teams of all time. So it was a landmark victory for us. I can’t help but think it was a really, really important win for us – a psychological thing.”
A different manager would try to suffocate the game and wind down the clock, but that is not the United way. “I don’t think we are very good at defending leads, to be honest,” Ferguson said. “The nature of our club is we have to have a positive attitude. When we went 3-1 ahead in Milan, for instance, it would have been easy to shut up shop but we kept looking for that fourth goal.”
