Juventus v Manchester Utd: On TV: TV3, UTV (7.45)SOCCER: The long-suffering sponsors had their reward at last. There was a moment yesterday when the English League Cup seemed to clamber above the Champions League in the hierarchy of football.
Better still, it was being elevated by Alex Ferguson, one of those managers whose diluted line-ups have sometimes weakened the status of the competition.
"We'll have one eye on Sunday, definitely," said Ferguson while pondering this evening's Champions League fixture with Juventus at Stadio delle Alpi. His reference was to the League Cup final against Liverpool at the weekend, but he was not really providing a quixotic assessment of the relative merits of the trophies.
With their excellence in the Champions League, United have awarded themselves the right to apportion their energies. After three wins already in Group D, a loss to Juventus would do them no material harm and they would still be only a point short of confirming their place in the quarter-finals. It is timing, rather than a fixation with the League Cup, that preoccupies Ferguson.
"This is the only risk we can take in the Champions League," said Ferguson of tonight's match. United should be able to count on a satisfactory outcome from their next appointment in the competition, which pits them against relatively slight rivals at Old Trafford. "We've got a game against Basel with a week's rest before it because we're out of the FA Cup," he said.
Wes Brown, with a hamstring problem, and Paul Scholes, with a calf injury, were left at home in the hope that they may yet be ready to face Liverpool. Mikael Silvestre declared himself fit and David Beckham is available, but Ferguson can take a relaxed view on whether, or for how long, they participate.
The variety of choices is United's prize for good form in the tournament. The eminence they now enjoy in the Champions League can be traced to the spring of 1999, when they came from 2-0 behind to win the second leg of the semi-final against Juventus in this same stadium. That triumph, even more than the frenetic victory over Bayern Munich in the final, illustrated United's new status.
"We had our greatest result here," Ferguson confirmed. "Juventus were a great yardstick for us. We caught up on them that year and we've moved on since then. I think we're more experienced and better tactically than we were."
In Group C Real Madrid may have been well below their best in recent games but they will still be strong favourites going into tonight's clash with Borussia Dortmund.
Real were lucky to beat Dortmund 2-1 at the Bernabeu last week but another victory over Dortmund would put the reigning European champions back on course to reach the quarter-finals with seven points from four games.
MANCHESTER UNITED (possible: 4-4-1-1): Barthez; G Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea; Beckham, Butt, Keane, Veron; Giggs; Solskjaer.
JUVENTUS (possible: 4-2-3-1): Buffon; Thuram, Ferrara, Montero, Pessotto; Conte, Davids; Camoranesi, Nedved, Di Vaio; Trezeguet.
Referee: Markus Merk (Germany)
