SOCCER: Many of their English rivals are undone as they step off the team bus at Old Trafford. But as Manchester United prepare to take on Real Madrid this evening for a place in this season's Champions League semi-finals, for once it is they who need to be convinced they can beat a team who were so overwhelmingly superior in beating them 3-1 two weeks ago.

Perhaps they play their mind games, like their football, on a higher plane in Spain but as Alex Ferguson insisted yesterday that the tie was not yet beyond his team it was his opposite number, Vicente del Bosque, who looked the more confident.

Having electrified the 74,000 supporters that filled the Bernabeu two weeks ago with their memorable first-half destruction of Britain's undisputed best over recent seasons, when it comes to European competition, his extravagant collection of talent will set out this evening to drive home their advantage as well as the superiority they displayed in the early part of the first leg.

Ferguson clearly knows what he and his side have to do but working out how precisely to do it with the players available makes for one of his more difficult team selections of recent seasons.

Paul Scholes may be the most sorely missed of United's absentees this evening but Gary Neville's suspension also deprives the manager of options at a time when John O'Shea is struggling with a knee injury.

The manager said yesterday the Waterford man and Juan Sebastian Veron would both be given until the last minute to prove their fitness. But O'Shea, a clear first choice now when fully fit, seems the less likely of the pair to start.

There is much more confidence that Veron can feature from the outset. But even if this is so, Ferguson must decide whether to risk throwing the Argentinean straight back in after a two-month lay-off.

The word around Old Trafford yesterday when it came to Ferguson's other significant dilemma - who to play up front alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy - Ferguson would persist with Ryan Giggs.

The Welshman has done well there of late but given the team's lack of alternatives on the left flank, and the fact that Real right back Michel Salgado has been one of the visiting team's few weak points this season when subjected to sufficient pressure, and the availability of David Beckham to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it would appear more logical to make some changes.

Regardless of whether it's with Solskjaer beside him or Giggs slightly to his rear, van Nistelrooy's pace and strength will be crucial. The striker was outstanding even as United were humbled through much of the first leg and Fernando Hierro, in particular, will not relish the prospect of having to cope with the Dutchman when he is much better supplied this evening.

If, as Ferguson hinted at the weekend he would, Veron starts then van Nistelrooy should benefit. But the manager's insistence yesterday that he would be pleased enough if the game remained scoreless until the 70th minute suggested that the combative central pairing of Keane and Nicky Butt might start, with the former Lazio man coming into the game later on.

Ferguson's fear, of course, is that Real will raise the stakes considerably by finding the net themselves and so leaving United with little option but to commit themselves heavily to attack.

The back four will have to cope much more effectively with the dazzling attacking skills of Figo and Ronaldo and, the movement and passing of Zinedine Zidane. They will, at least, be spared, a repeat of the Frenchman's devastating exchanges with Raul.

But if Beckham does return, he too will have to contribute a good deal defensively as it will fall to the England captain to curtail Roberto Carlos going forward.

Hierro's remark that Real were either "galactic world beaters or the lowest of the low," may, of course, have gained something in the translation but there is certainly an inconsistency in their form that should fuel the home side's optimism.

Only once all season in the Primera Liga or Champions League has del Bosque's side actually been beaten by the margin United require this evening but their form since the acclaimed win in the first leg of this tie, a 4-2 defeat by Real Sociedad and a hard fought draw with Barcelona, has seen their lead at the top of La Liga shrink to one point.

The "super derby" is sure to have taken more out of them than did United's win over Blackburn on Saturday but their manager was adamant his players did not need to fear the more physical approach they may encounter this evening.

"Our team is not made up of girls," was his cryptic message.

MANCHESTER UNITED (possible): Barthez; Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre, P Neville; Beckham, Keane, Butt, Giggs; van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer.

REAL MADRID: Casillas; Salgado, Hierro, Helguera, Roberto Carlos; Figo, Makelele, Flavio, Zidane; Ronaldo, Guti.