Manchester United vs Otelul Galati - Match Preview

Manchester United, somewhat surprisingly, go into tonight's Group C Champions League tie tonight runners-up in the table with only five points attained from a possible nine. Though we doubt anyone at Old Trafford will be panicking too hard. A victory over their Romanian opponents OtelulGalati tonight will almost certainly see them qualify for the knockout stage and with three games left, Sir Alex Ferguson's aim will be to win the group outright to avoid the stronger teams in the next round. United bounced back from their humiliating derby day defeat to Manchester City on home soil with a solid away win at Goodison and won't particularly care they haven't performed as impressive in the early stages of European competition, as long as they qualify.

Team News

Midfielder Tom Cleverley is ruled out with a knee injury he picked up during the victory at Everton (he misses the home game with Sunderland too) and joins Chris Smalling (foot), Ryan Giggs (hamstring) and Ashley Young (toe) in the treatment room. Captain Nemanja Vidic is suspended and will miss the game following a red card he picked up against Otelul in Bucharest from the reverse fixture. Rio Ferdinand will therefore start at the back and it will be his chance to show that he should still be a first team regular. With United needing a win tonight, you can expect a fair few first teamers to litter the side.

Line-ups from;

Manchester United (from): De Gea, Lindegaard, Amos, Jones, Rafael, Fabio, Ferdinand, Evans, Freyes, Cole, Pogba, Valencia, Anderson, Park, Fletcher, Gibson, Nani, Diouf, Hernandez, Owen, Rooney, Berbatov, Welbeck. Prediction 4-0 - The Romanian minnows of European football stand no chance and if United get an early goal, it could be a lot more.