Olympiakos v Man Utd: Alex ferguson has had such wretched luck with injuries lately that he must have been relieved to discover that none of his players suffered damaged ligaments during Monday's Manchester earthquake.
But even though he was forced to travel here without Ruud van Nistelrooy, Nicky Butt, Rio Ferdinand and Roy Keane, it would take a much bigger eruption on football's Richter scale for Manchester United to fail to complete their passage into the Champions League's second stage against Olympiakos tonight.
United have never lost in Greece and since these two teams met at Old Trafford three weeks ago Olympiakos's title momentum has been halted by a shutdown of the league ordered by the Greek Football Federation following the collapse of Alpha Digital, the European satellite broadcaster.
Olympiakos, who beat PAE Kallithea 4-1 in a cup tie 17 days ago and Second Division Atromitos 4-0 in a friendly on Saturday, have also had to move the match to the 18,000-capacity Rizoupolis Stadium while the imposing Olympic arena undergoes some improvements for a minor sporting event in 2004.
Ferguson, however, said: "The smaller stadium means the fans will be nearer the pitch and the atmosphere more volatile."
With a 100 per cent record so far a point would not only take United through but could, if the other match ends in a draw, virtually ensure that they would finish top of the group.
In the absence of Van Nistelrooy, who could be fit for Saturday's game against Villa, Ferguson will choose his team from the 11 who started at Fulham, plus Diego Forlan and Quinton Fortune, who seem certain to begin the game on the bench.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, used to coming on as a late substitute, finds himself in the unusual position of leading the line. But he says: "I don't see that as a big responsibility because it's a team game. Paul Scholes is fantastic and Ryan Giggs's pace helps him to get forward - I wouldn't like to be a defender marking him."
Olympiakos, whose last win against English opposition came against Spurs (in Athens) in the 1972-73 UEFA Cup, would love some of United's problems. First, though, Ferguson expects his players to allow him the luxury of resting players in European competition while he attempts to catch Liverpool and Arsenal in the Premiership.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
OLYMPIAKOS (4-5-1): Eleftheropoulos; Mavrogenidis, Antzas, Anatolakis, Venetidis; Giannakopoulos, Karembeu, Zetterberg, Dracena, Djordjevic; Choutos or Giovanni.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-1-1): Barthez; G Neville, O'Shea, Blanc, Silvestre; Beckham, Veron, P Neville, Giggs; Scholes; Solskjaer.
