MANCHESTER UNITED will put their faith in Ryan Giggs in the Ernst Happel Stadium tonight (Network 2, UTV 7.30) while hoping that their trust in Juventus is not misplaced.
To become the first English team to qualify for the Champions' League quarter-finals since the tournament was reorganised as a television spectacular, United have to get a better result against Rapid Vienna than Fenerbahce achieve in the Stadio delle Alpi. At the moment the Turkish champions are keeping them out of second place in Group C by a point.
A draw here and a home win in Turin would bring Manchester United and Fenerbahce level, with United going through on the strength of their 2-0 victory in Istanbul as opposed to the 1-0 Turkish triumph which ended Old Trafford's 40-year-old unbeaten record in Europe. But with Juventus already having won the group, through their 1-0 win in Manchester a fortnight ago, United cannot count on Fenerbahce being beaten.
Marcello Lippi, the Juventus coach, has already assured Alex Ferguson that his team will play to win even if, for them, nothing hangs on the result. But Juventus have just completed an arduous fortnight, which saw them beat River Plate in Tokyo in the World Club Championship less than a week after defeating United.
In addition, and with a likely quarter-final against Milan looming, Lippi has seven players on yellow cards in the Champions' League among them Peruzzi, his first-choice goalkeeper, Didier Deschamps, half of his inspirational French midfield partnership, and Alen Boksic, his leading scorer.
So while Fenerbahce are unlikely to win in Turin a draw is not out of the question. United, therefore, have to beat Rapid, who are out of the equation, to give themselves the best chance of going through to meet Porto, the runaway Group D winners.
To this end Ferguson will field what passes for his strongest side right now: Gary Neville, David May, Gary Pallister and Denis Irwin across the back, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs across the middle, and Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer up front. In such a taut situation, given Cantona's habitually poor form in European ties, United will be looking to the speed and control of Giggs to unravel the Rapid defence.
"Ryan Giggs has so much pace," said Solskjaer yesterday, "and you have to have quick players in Europe." Unwittingly, the young Norwegian put his finger on the principal reason for Cantona's continued failure to come to terms with these occasions, although the Frenchman did begin to look the part in Istanbul.
So, for that matter, did the United team as a whole. As Ferguson recalled: "We played really patiently, in the first half we were in no hurry, and then in the second we showed the speed to get forward.
"There's an element of cat-and-mouse in these games. You want to see what the other team can do, you don't want to do anything silly yourselves, you want to get your passing right, get a feel of the game and get confidence on the ball. This can help us in the later stages of a match."
Gary Neville's forecast that "we'll be going at their throats early on, it's a game we've got to win" smacked more of lion and zebra than cat and mouse. Either way United will need to reproduce a mixture of the controlled aggression which brought them success in Istanbul and the passion that nearly saved them against Juventus in the second half at Old Trafford.
Ferguson seemed to be in a glum mood when Manchester United arrived here yesterday. The players are comfortably billeted at an exclusive leisure complex on the outskirts of Vienna, but perhaps the idea of spending 36 hours at something called the City Club was giving United's manager the blues.
"I can't think about the other game," he insisted. "I'm focusing on what we're doing. Inevitably we'll get to know what's happening in Turin, but I don't want to hear it. We just got to do our own job. Having Pallister and Giggs back gives us a fair balance, especially at the back. I think that's important."
Rapid can hardly be as poor tonight as they were in losing 2-0 at Old Trafford. For a start Trifon Ivanov, their Bulgarian sweeper, can be expected to get at least one decent free kick on target. Ernst Dokupil has lost a defender, Andrzej Lesiak, to suspension but otherwise will field much the same side.
