Date: Tuesday, November 5 Venue: Anoeta Stadium Kick-Off: 19:45 Can Manchester United continue their push for qualification to the Champions League knock-out stages when they travel to Real Sociedad for Tuesday night's Group A encounter?
Team News
Real Sociedad will continue to be without long-term absentees Diego Ifran and Esteban Granero for the visit of Manchester United tonight. However, manager Jagoba Arrasate has no other injury concerns. Man United will be without defensive duo Rafael and Jonny Evans, with respective ankle and back injuries. Midfielder Tom Cleverley is also a doubt after coming off at halftime in the weekend win over Fulham with double vision, but has travelled to San Sebastian. (eurosport)
Key Stats
Real Sociedad have lost all three of their European matches against English sides (twice to Liverpool, once to Man Utd two weeks ago). Uniteds clean sheet against Sociedad last time out was their first in 10 Champions League games. Real have gone four European home games without a win, this coming after a spell of nine successive wins previously (excludes qualifiers). Wayne Rooney is the top scoring English player in Champions League history with 29 goals.
Likely Line-Ups
Real Sociedad Bravo, Angel, Martinez, Gonzàlez, Martínez, Zurutuza, Pardo, Griezman, Prieto, Castro, Agirrexte Man Utd De Gea, Jones, Vidic, Smalling, Evra, Fellaini, Giggs, Valencia, Kagawa, Rooney, Van Persie
Match Preview
Manchester United can all-but assure themselves of qualification from the Champions League Group Stages with victory over pointless Real Sociedad tonight. The Red Devils top Group A with seven points from three games while Sociedad are bottom and without a win. With United's domestic form steadily improving, following the weekend victory over Fulham, this then is another opportunity for manager David Moyes's men to lay down a marker and signal their intent this season. The English champions have been written off by various pundits this term but qualification for the knock-out stages, which would be Moyes's first ever foray into the latter stages of this competition, would silence some of those. That being said, Moyes decided to exercise caution in his pre-match media interviews. He told the BBC:
"I won't take anything for granted. "I have a lot of respect for Sociedad. We have to play well if we're going to get those 10 points, which will get us over the line. We've got ourselves into a good position in the group and we have to try to maintain that. "I think our experienced players have shown they're used to the Champions League."
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
