Manchester United would be less than human if they did not glance round the corner to start weighing up their chances against Real Madrid or other heavyweights they might encounter in later Champions League rounds.
Last season United went out to Real in the quarter-finals after losing 3-2 at Old Trafford. "If we meet them again I'm sure we'll do better than we did then," Alex Ferguson declared yesterday. "The stability and maturity of our team is improving all the time. We've got greater mental strength now."
First, however, Manchester United have to make sure that they are in the last eight for a fifth successive season and to this end they need to beat Panathinaikos in the Olympic Stadium in Athens tonight - or at least not lose. Two points are all United need to qualify from the second phase and they still have to meet Sturm Graz at Old Trafford next Tuesday.
Either way United cannot afford to assume that tonight's game will be a stroll, although Panathinaikos may have hit a wall after losing at home to Graz. Angelos Anastasiadis, their coach of nine months, immediately resigned to be replaced by a caretaker, Stratos Apostolakis, who called for unity in a dissenting squad.
Portuguese midfielder Paolo Sousa is expected to be in the starting line-up after a hapless season under Anastasiadis. It will be Sousa's first European start since the game against his former club Juventus in Athens in December.
Croat Goran Vlaovic is also expected to start in attack as Panathinaikos look to salvage some pride with the scalp of Ferguson's men.
Ferguson, though, will doubtless send his team out with the usual caveats about not losing discipline or concentration and the need to keep the play tight in all parts of the pitch. Ryan Giggs's hamstring injury has deprived the United manager of an important counterattacking strength and, with Nicky Butt suspended, United will look even more to Roy Keane.
Ferguson has suggested that he might start the match with Luke Chadwick but is more likely to replace Butt with Phil Neville and use Paul Scholes wider on the left.
United's reserve goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw is to have a knee operation so the American teenager Paul Rachubka is expected to be on the bench in Greece.
A Greek double of Eric Cantona turned up for yesterday's press conference here to be assailed by photographers. The fact that, while Manchester United might remember the real thing with affection, they no longer pine for his presence is a measure of how far the present side has come.
Surprise package Sturm Graz of Austria would reach the quarterfinals from Group A should they manage to beat last year's runners-up Valencia 3-0 at home.
Valencia, who would go into the quarter-finals with a win, will be aided by absences to suspended Sturm players Gunther Neukirchner and Markus Schopp.
Valencia, however, will be without full backs Amadeo Carboni of Italy and Brazilian Fabio Aurelio, both injured, and suspended central defender Ruben Baraja.
PROBABLE TEAMS PANATHINAIKOS: Nikopolidis; Fyssas, Henriksen, Goumas, Saric; Olivares, Sousa; Warzycha; Vlaovic, Liberopoulos .
MANCHESTER UNITED: Barthez; G Neville, Stam, Brown, Silvestre; Beckham, Keane, P Neville, Scholes; Sheringham, Cole.
