Fifteen months ago Manchester United left the Stadio Delle Alpi looking like the third-formers of European football. But tonight will be their graduation ball. For even if Juventus defeat Alex Ferguson's team a second time, they cannot stop United reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Of course Manchester United can end the opposition's shrinking hopes of making the last eight but Ferguson is less bothered about putting one over on Juventus on their own ground than showing Turin that the English champions are now capable of providing a master class in the finer footballing arts before one of the game's most critical crowds.
"Juventus do not concern me at all," the Manchester United manager insisted yesterday, as his squad returned to the former Fiat factory now converted into a luxury hotel. "It is not on my agenda to put Juventus out. My only concern is with Manchester United. "Big clubs have to win all the time and we would like to think we're a big club. If we were to perform badly tomorrow night then a lot of questions would be asked. We can't afford that.
"This is a big test for us, there's no doubt about that. This time the performance will be important. Sometimes you can play well and not win but we want a really good performance tomorrow."
The way a Manchester United team, raw at the edges, lost here at the start of last season's Champions League continues to rankle with their manager. "The team was inexperienced and in the first half we were overawed and intimidated," Ferguson recalled. "But when we beat Feyenoord 3-1 in Rotterdam a month ago we gave a performance full of authority and command. Now we want to show Turin how much we have improved over the last year."
Victory this evening would make Manchester United only the fourth club to qualify for the knockout stage with a 100 per cent record since the Champions League replaced the European Cup five years ago.
So far only Milan (1992-93), Paris St Germain (1994-95) and Spartak Moscow (95-96) have won all their group matches. With a three month wait to the quarterfinals, the statistics of United's winning of Group B will not be relevant by the time they begin their attempt to reach the semi-finals for a second successive season.
As Peter Schmeichel was quick to point out yesterday, Porto came to Old Trafford last season after five victories and a draw in their group games but still lost 4-0.
All the pressure tonight will be on Juventus whose 2-0 defeat in Rotterdam, while United were strolling past Kosice 3-0 at Old Trafford, has left their remaining Champions League hopes largely in other hands. For even if Marcello Lippi's players gain some sort of satisfaction for losing 3-2 in Manchester two months ago, that still might not be enough.
The two best runners-up go through, as well as the six group winners, and the best Juventus can do now is finish second with 12 points. Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen, first and second in Group F, already have a dozen points apiece and when they meet in Germany tonight, a draw would not be a surprise.
Juventus supporters will be more anxious to hear the results from Group D where Real Madrid and Rosenborg each have 10 points. Should either fail to win tonight, then a victory over United would be enough for Juve provided Paris St Germain did not score a glut of goals against Besiktas in Group E.
But first Juventus have to beat Manchester United without the injured Didier Deschamps and the suspended Alessandro Del Piero, who scored after 19 seconds at Old Trafford. They are also missing Nicola Amoruso, another striker, who has a broken leg as well as a defender Gianluca Pessotto.
The only hiccup in Ferguson's plans came yesterday when he had to leave behind Paul Scholes, who has flu. Ferguson intended playing Scholes, at present serving a three-match suspension in the Premier League. Now the only change will probably see Ole Solskjaer coming in for Ryan Giggs, who like Scholes is on a yellow card in Europe and need not risk missing the opening leg of the quarter-finals by getting another.
SIR Bobby Charlton believes that the current United side could be better than the team that won the European cup in 1968.
Charlton saic "United have always had great teams but they have never had a team with this consistency. I never, ever remember that consistency before."
Juventus (probable): Peruzzi; Birindelli, Ferrara, Montero, Torricelli; Di Livio, Conte, Zidane, Tacchinardi; Inzaghi, Fonseca.
Manchester United (probable): Schmeichel; G Neville, Berg, Allister, P Neville; Beckham, Butt, Johnsen; Sheringham, Cole, Solskjaer.
Referee: G Veissiere (France).
