Graz may be, as the city's slogan has it, Europe's "secret love" but for Manchester United the attractions on offer here last night could be viewed only as possible distractions (ITV and TV3, 7.30p.m.).
While Austria's second city reverberated to its annual Krampustag festival, Styria's bigger and better equivalent of Hallowe'en, United were keeping their distance ahead of tonight's renewal of acquaintances with Sturm Graz. They have found a sedate retreat on the city's outskirts after learning sleep would be a precious commodity while hundreds of fancydress devils carrying inflatable pitchforks partied beneath their hotel windows.
Alex Ferguson will be looking for his players to rediscover the streak of fearlessness on their travels they showed in this competition two seasons ago.
Although Graz are seen as the weak link in Group A, losing their opening game at Valencia 2-0 while United beat Panathinaikos 3-1, the Austrians possess a formidable home record, having beaten Monaco, Galatasaray and Rangers to qualify from the first phase. "They are home specialists, that's their forte," Ferguson said yesterday. "In those three games they gave away only two clear chances."
Whether United fare any better depends on them adapting more readily to the fact that their presence can inspire the smaller clubs in Europe. Since winning the European Cup in 1999 they have won only three out of 10 games on the continent.
Even so, having beaten Graz home and away last season, tonight's game at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium should provide a reasonable opportunity for Ferguson to find an antidote for the travel sickness. "We need to change our mentality in Europe," said his assistant Steve McClaren. "Away matches are more difficult now because defeating us is so much of a scalp." That seems to have been borne out by the fact all 15,000 tickets were bought within 30 minutes of going on sale. The atmosphere promises to be on the warm side even if the temperature dropped to below zero yesterday.
David Beckham is guaranteed a hot reception, having upset Graz last season with a bad tackle on Tomislav Kocijan. The Austrians' midfielder Roman Mahlich complained: "I was furious and I told him I didn't like his wife's music." Judging by recent sales of the Spice Girls' new CD, he is not alone.
Sturm Graz (probable, 3-5-2): Sidorczuk; Neukirchner, Mamedov, Prilasnig; Schopp, Korsos, Fleurquin, Mahlich, Minavand; Vastic, Kocijan.
Manchester Utd (probable, 4-4-2): Barthez; P Neville, Brown, G Neville, Irwin; Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs; Sheringham, Yorke.
