United travel to Marseille with something of a depleted squad and, given that our away record so far this season hasn’t been great, this only adds to the concern.

Marseille’s home record in their domestic league has been very good and they have not lost in their previous ten home matches and whilst they did lose one of their home games in the Champions League group stage, they did beat Chelsea 1-0 on their home ground.

Given our disappointing performance against Crawley Town over the weekend, it is going to be interesting to see exactly who Fergie selects for this one. I know many people were very disappointed with the performances of Obertan and Bebe, in particular and, as both of these players have travelled with the squad, I wonder if Fergie is going to give either of them a chance to redeem themselves or if they are just there to make up the numbers.

What looks perhaps more likely is a midfield of Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Gibson and Rooney with Berbatov playing on his own with support from Rooney coming in from the left.

An away goal is always key to these ties and I expect us to try to keep the game tight and score on the counter-attack but Marseille have certainly got enough about them to score a goal of their own.

I do think that 1-1 is the most likely scoreline although there’s a chance that we could do one of our 1-0 smash and grab raids that were a feature of our away games in the group stage.

Unfortunately, the bookies also seem to agree that this will be a low scoring, tight affair and there isn’t much value to be had in those markets.

I think I am going to have a small bet on the Manchester United win purely on the basis that it is going to be so close and one goal might be all that is scored and I think we have as much chance of scoring it as Marseille.

The bet is 2 points on Manchester United to win @ 2.5 with Victor Chandler.

And so the group stages of the Champions League draw to a close and these two teams enter tonights games knowing that qualification is assured whatever the result.

The only thing that remains to be decided between the two teams is who will top the group. A draw will be enough for United but a win for Valencia will see them overtake us due to their superior goal difference.

Fergie has already said that he will play his strongest side for this one and he clearly wants to see us top the group and avoid the likes of Bayern, Real and Barca in the next round although the way things are going, it looks possible that the next round could see us pitted against the likes of Inter, Lyon, AC Milan or Marseille so there are going to be no easy games in the next stage whatever happens, it would seem.

After last week’s debacle against West Ham though, Fergie will surely want to see us get back to playing somewhere near half decent again though and I expect a solid performance tonight.

When we played Valencia at their place earlier in the competition, we won 1-0 in something of a smash and grab raid  and I can see something similar here tonight. I doubt either team will come out all guns blazing and, as already mentioned, neither team really needs to win here tonight – the main thing will surely be to not give the other team any kind of psychological advantage by losing heavily should we meet up again later in the tournament.

The bookies think this will be a high scoring game but I really can’t see that happening and I can see another 1-0 win for United although 1-1 or 0-0 wouldn’t come as a massive surprise either.

The bet is going to be 3 points UNDER 2.5 Goals @ 2.10 with Bet365.

Manchester United go into this game in a very strong position in the group and a win or a draw will absolutely ensure qualification but who tops the group will not be decided until we play Valencia in a couple of weeks.

These two sides played out a goalless draw when we met in the reverse fixture a couple of months ago and some fans on both sides were wondering if there was something of the “old pals act” coming into play as Fergie and Walter Smith are such good friends but it is almost inconceivable that we’ll be seeing anything of the sort this evening (if indeed there was anything to the suspicion in the first game).

With Valencia playing Bursaspor, it looks highly likely that anything less than a win for Rangers tonight will be good enough to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the knockout stages.

Walter Smith goes into this game with something of a problem with his defence due to injuries whilst Fergie has stated that he won’t be taking Rio and Vidic (going instead with Smalling and Evans) so this could mean that the game has even less chance of being another goalless draw.

And this is what I am going to go with really. I expect goals in this game. Rangers might well have an ear on what is happening in the Valencia game and that could affect their performance either way – their heads could drop if the news is that Valencia are 2-0 up – especially if they themselves are a goal down and on the other hand, if the news from the Valencia game is positive, it might urge them on to do everything to win this game – and this in itself could play right into our hands.

The bet is going to be 2 points OVER 2.5 goals @ 2.03 with William Hill.

Manchester United travel to Turkey for this, the fourth game in their Champions League group stage and a win here tonight will virtually ensure qualification to the knock-out stages.

It does look like a golden opportunity for United as Bursaspor have still not even managed to score a single goal in the competition so far and have lost all of their games so far.

On the other hand, Bursaspor are now at the point of no return and might just go into this game knowing that there’s nothing more to lose and, in front of their home crowd, will surely just give it everything.

What is slightly difficult to establish is how we will approach this game. The normal away formation these days is the 4-5-1 type formation and I expect United to go with this, start the game slowly and simply attempt to stifle Bursaspor and quieten the crowd down a bit and push on more as the game progresses.

I’m going to base this prediction on the belief that Bursaspor won’t score again and that we will win the game 1-0 or perhaps 2-0 but I’m not going to go overboard on the stakes.

The bet is 2 Points Manchester United to Win to Nil @ 2.70 with Paddy Power.

Definitely a Rooney-free zone on this site today and Old Trafford looks almost certain to be a Rooney-free zone this evening as we look to take a grip on proceedings in our Champions League group against the only side which have yet to pick up a point – Bursaspor.

The feeling is that a win home and away against what appear to be the weakest team in the group would take us pretty much through to the next stage of the competition with two games left to play. Certainly having already drawn a home game in the group stage, you would have thought that nothing less than a win here tonight would be considered good enough by anyone.

I am not going to over-analyse this one. I just think that after the events of the last couple of days, Old Trafford will be absolutely rocking tonight as the fans leave the players on the pitch in no doubt whatsoever that this is the best club in the world and the players will respond to that, despite probably being a little shell-shocked themselves.

I’d like to think the defensive lapses that have littered our season so far are now a thing of the past and that the likes of Berbatov and Hernandez can continue to supply the goals that they have been doing so far this season for us to run out fairly comfortable winners.

The bet will be 3 points Manchester United -1.5AH @ 1.8 with Bet365.

Our away form has been a cause for concern so far this season and a trip to Valencia in the Champions League isn’t exactly the type of fixture you would expect to produce a turn-around but having drawn our opening game at home to Rangers, it would appear to be quite important that we take at least a point home from this one.

A slight concern for us going into this one is that we seem to have a few injuries in midfield and both Scholes and Giggs have stayed at home with the likes of Carrick and Anderson making the trip – as both of these are themselves on the comeback from injury and poor form, it is very difficult to assess just what kind of performance we will get from them tonight, should they play.

Another player who is also being lined up to make his comeback from injury is Rio Ferdinand and this is another one which could go either way but if he is in any way fit to start then I would expect him to – defensive errors have been largely to blame for the points dropped in our away fixtures so far this season and a resumption of the Vidic/Ferdinand partnership will go a long way to easing the minds of United supporters concerned at the sloppiness of some of the goals we’ve conceded recently.

The one player who won’t be making an appearance of any kind tonight is Wayne Rooney, of course and this is going to make things interesting because Fergie has largely liked to employ the 4-5-1 type of formation in big away games – especially in Europe.

Berbatov alone upfront isn’t appealing but he has been providing the goals so far this season. Michael Owen continues to do the business when called upon though and a Berby/Owen partnership would seem logical but where does this leave the formation?

It’s a tricky task for Fergie here and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Owen alone upfront and a packed midfield in an attempt to contain Valencia and come away with a draw.

Valencia themselves were supposed to be less of a team than they used to be and the summer sales of Villa and Silva only seemed to re-inforce this view but the fact of the matter is that they currently lead La Liga, won their opening Champions League fixture 4-0 and have been unbeaten at home in Europe in their last eleven games.

All things considered, this is likely to be a tough game for United. Our defence will have to be fully concentrated tonight and any chances that come our way will have to be taken.

I can see a pretty cagey affair with United trying to hold out for a draw with possibly a late goal coming to settle the issue. I don’t think there will be many goals though.

The bet is going to be 4 points UNDER 2.5 goals @ 1.75 with Canbet.

The draw for this season’s Champions league has just been made and this is how it looks for Manchester United.

We have been drawn in Group C alongside Valencia, Rangers and Bursaspor.

There are obviously going to be a couple of tasty encounters with Rangers and Valencia have good pedigree in the tournament. I must admit to knowing very little about Bursaspor other than the fact that they qualified for this tournament by winning the Turkish Super Lig last season but that title win was the first time they had ever finished in the top three of their domestic league.

I think the other English sides fared slightly better with their groups (with the exception of Spurs who always looked like ending in a tough group as they came from Pot 3).

Chelsea, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, MSK Zilina.

Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga, FK Partizan.

Tottenham, Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, FC Twente.

Wednesday, 7th April 2010 – KO: 19:45

We went into the first leg on a great run of form and I must admit to being extremely confident that we would brush the pesky Germans aside with relative ease.

Thirty seconds at the end of the first leg threw a bucket of cold water over me, and Manchester United’s chances however.

When we went a goal up after barely a minute played, it looked like we could go on to win comfortably and whilst Fergie has been keen to stress that Bayern played extremely well after that, I think we were the architects of our own downfall. We really should have hammered home that advantage and scored a second at some stage in the game. Bayern were there for the taking.

However, we went into our shell somewhat after that first goal and this only gave Bayern confidence to press forward. That they eventually ran out winners was not a major surprise in the end, I think every United supporter saw it coming.

When they scored that second goal, it was of secondary importance at the time as we all looked across to see Wayne Rooney. With Wayne Rooney in the side, overcoming a goal or two deficit would be far more achievable but as we saw him hobbling off, we all knew then that we faced an uphill battle.

Today, however, thoughts of Wayne Rooney have to be put aside. That second goal Bayern scored is very much a problem and the more I think about it, the bigger the problem becomes.

When this match kicks off tonight, Bayern Munich will be “through”. If we score the first goal then for as long as it remains 1-0, we are “through”. However, if Bayern Munich score one, then we need to score three to go through. Not impossible if we had Wayne Rooney but it just seems far less likely without him.

It does seem unlikely that we will keep Bayern out for ninety minutes. Whilst he missed the first leg, their top goalscorer, Arjen Robben should be back for this one and their midfield playmaker Schweinsteiger should also be back for this one. What this all means is that they are likely to be an even bigger attacking threat in this game than they were at home.

Like in the first game, Van Gaal will be looking for an all-action display from his midfielders, putting pressure on our midfielders in order to cut the supply and they will be looking to break and score that all important goal which could well put the tie beyond us.

Quite what we will do is hard to predict. Our passing in the first leg of this tie and the game against Chelsea was absolutely woeful. We were passing to the opposition almost as much as the opposition were passing to the opposition!

Forget the striking dilemma for a moment – the most important aspect Fergie needs to get right for this one is the midfield. We were over-run in the first leg and we were over-run for large chunks against Chelsea at the weekend. That cannot be allowed to happen again here tonight.

I don’t know what the chances are but this would be an ideal game for a fit Owen Hargreaves to play in…

If we can quell the Bayern midfield and cut out the supply to the likes of Robben and Ribery then we can overcome this Bayern side with or without Rooney (and there is still a rumour that won’t go away that he could make the bench for this one) but we are going to have to dig deep into our reserves to pull it off.

My betting predictions of late have been appalling as I seemingly found myself out of sync with Manchester United. When I expect them to play well, they are awful, when I expect a tough game, they thrash the opposition 4-0.

Predicting what will happen here tonight is almost impossible. Will both sides come out cagey knowing that 1-0 for United or even 0-0 for Bayern will be enough to go through or will both sides come out all guns blazing hoping to blow the other away?

I am going to go for the United win again here on the basis that we can’t lose three games on the bounce (I appreciate that a draw is a possible result) and that the United players will show what we all thought before the first leg – that we are simply too good for them. With or without Rooney.

The bet is 3 points United to Win @ 1.8 with bet365.

One hundred and eighty minutes of football played and for all but about twenty of them, United were going through to the semi final. Over the two legs, Bayern were rarely even in this tie and when they went 3-0 down in this game, United really should have had the quality and experience to make absolutely sure of it but somehow we managed to let it slip away.

Rooney made a surprise start and his mere prescence pumped up the crowd and got everyone believing that something special was possible here tonight. When Darron Gibson put us 1-0 up after 3 minutes and Nani put us 2-0 up after 7 minutes, something very special was very much on the cards.

At that stage, we had overcome the first leg deficit and were on our way through.

However, Rooney went into a challenge with Van Buyten on around 20 minutes and at first the fact that Van Buyten appeared to catch Rooney’s dodgy right ankle seemed accidental (although it left Rooney limping from this point on) but when he quite clearly kicked the same right ankle just 12-13 minutes later, there was nothing accidental about it. It was deliberate, it was cynical, he should have been booked – but wasn’t.

We were always a man down in this game as the referee was doing his best to level the match by giving every fifty-fifty in the direction of Bayern and the number of free kicks they won in the first half when there was little, if anything, in the challenges was staggering.

With the benefit of hindsight, Rooney should have come off as soon as he started limping after twenty minutes. We were playing against twelve men from the start and with Rooney nowhere near 100%, we were attempting to do it with ten.

That didn’t stop us taking a 3-0 lead after around 41 minutes though and I was willing the team just to calm themselves down, keep the ball, get to half time, don’t do anything risky but Olic, just as he did in the dying seconds of the first leg somehow squeezed the ball in just before half time.

It was right then that we all realised the situation. A 3-0 lead suddenly looked like nothing. Bayern had scored and to all intents and purposes, there were 45 minutes left to play where effectively, the next goal would win it.

For the first few minutes of the second half, we were strong and looked capable of dealing with whatever Bayern had to throw at us but then Rafael got into a bit of a tussle for the ball with Ribery, he did pull and and tug a bit but Ribery also barged into Rafael – it was fifty-fifty but Bayern probably deserved the free kick.

What happened next was unbelievable as the Bayern players suddenly realised that Rafael had been booked in the first half and suddenly started piling around the referee who had shown no indication that he was about to produce a yellow card, suddenly started to nod to the Bayern players and then produced the yellow card.

I have watched the incident over and over and there is no way on this earth that Rafael should have got a yellow card for that challenge. It wasn’t as if Rafael had been persistently fouling because he hadn’t. If anything, he had been one of the best players on the pitch, getting forward to great effect and breaking up just about every Bayern attack that came his way in the first half.

A few minutes later, Rooney finally had to admit defeat in his attempts to play on with the injury as Fergie shuffled the pack to compensate for the loss of Rafael. Rooney went off, John O’Shea made a welcome comeback from his own injury nightmare and that left us basically without a striker.

We were basically going to try to hang on to the slender one goal aggregate lead for the best part of 35 minutes.

Quite frankly, it was never going to happen because the one thing we needed to do is the one thing that we have been doing poorly for the last few games and that is just keeping hold of the ball.

Bayern came forward with wave after wave of attack, we would nick the ball and then promptly give it back to them within seconds for them to have another go.

This went on for around twenty minutes until finally Robben produced an unbelievably good volley to get Bayern’s second which ultimately proved good enough to send them through on the away goal rule.

It was a sickening way to go out of the competition especially as over the two games, we were the better team but two sloppy goals – one at the end of the first leg and one at the end of half time in this leg, one appalling referee and one ankle injury all conspired against us to cost us a place in the semi-final.

Tuesday, 30th March 2010 – KO: 19:45

The German Bundesliga has always struck me as a funny old League. Wolfsburg were last year’s Champions with Schalke 04 finishing in 8th place. At the time of writing, Schalke 04 lead the Bundesliga whilst Wolfsburg are down in ninth place.

As for Bayern Munich, they won the Bundesliga in 2007/08, finished second last season and are currently in second place again.

What I suppose this shows is that the Bundesliga is mental but Bayern Munich are pretty consistent and over the years have probably been recognised as the standard bearer for German football.

Our own record against Bayern is pretty mixed on the whole. We have met them seven times but have only won one of them (can anyone remember that game? what happened?). We did, of course, have them in the group stage of the Champions League that year and the two games between us produced some pretty decent matches with the two games finishing 2-2 and 1-1.

Bayern got some measure of revenge for the 99 CL Final when they knocked us out of the CL at this stage in 2001 with a 3-1 aggregate scoreline.

All of this is a long, long time ago though and it is over eight years since we last met them.

We go into this game on a great run of form. The 3-1 defeat at the hands of Everton in the Premier League being by far the stand-out result in a pretty long streak of victories.

Bayern, by contrast, come into this game having lost their previous two matches. I also think they can count themselves extremely fortunate to even be in this Champions League quarter final. They won their first leg against Fiorentina 2-1 thanks to a late, late goal which was a mile offside and then lost the return leg 3-2 which of course meant that they scraped through on the away goal rule.

It is worth noting that Fiorentina are currently in eighth place in Serie A, a long, long way behind the likes of AC Milan.

Fergie rested Rooney in the game against Bolton but I fully expect him to be back for this one and Rio Ferdinand who was also rested should resume his partnership with Vidic in the centre of defence.

There have been all kinds of reports that either or both of Ribery and Robben could be missing for this one due to injury but reading between the lines, I would say that Ribery will definitely start and it is Robben who is the doubt.

It’s going to be interesting to see if they do play and who Fergie chooses to put up against them.

Whichever way I look at this one, I can only see Bayern as distinct underdogs here. They do have some great attacking players but so do we. They have some decent midfielders, we have some very good midfielders. They look a bit suspect at the back, we have a very solid defence.

If Bayern can somehow sneak a goal and keep us out for ninety minutes then they have a chance here tonight but as far as I am concerned it all depends on how ambitious Fergie and the boys are here tonight. We could put this one to bed right here tonight and make the return leg almost a formality. Or we could settle for a score draw which is often as good as a win in the away leg.

I think we need to go for this one tonight. With Chelsea now out of the Champions League, they have a slight advantage in the Premier League as their players can have more rest between games. If we can put a couple past Bayern tonight, Fergie might even have the option of giving a couple of breather in the return leg.

The bet is going to be 3 points United to Win @ 2.41 with Canbet.

Review to follow…

Wednesday, 10th March 2010 – KO: 19:45

It has been over two weeks since we played at Old Trafford and what a game to come back on – it doesn’t get much better than this.

I have watched a replay of the first match a couple of times now and I must say, we can consider ourselves quite fortunate to be taking a lead into this game. With a bit more luck and a bit more composure in front of goal, Milan could have blown us away by half-time.

However, we rode our luck before coming back very strongly in the second half. When we went 3-1 up, it looked very much like this tie was as good as over but Seedorf’s clever little backheel in the closing stages gave Milan some chance that they can overturn the deficit.

It is going to be very interesting to see how Milan start in this one. They started extremely brightly in the first leg and I think we were a bit surprised by that. They do need to win here tonight and probably need to score at least three goals in the process (although a 2-0 win would also take them through) and so they won’t be able to mess around too much, they will need to attack.

If the first leg showed one thing it is that attack is their strength however so I would not say that they face mission impossible in terms of getting the goals they require. The problem they face is getting those goals whilst keeping us out at the same time. I simply cannot see that happening and sooner or later we are going to score a goal and if we get one, we could get two as the Milan heads start to drop.

I think Valencia is going to be our key player here tonight. He made a big difference when he came on in the first leg and the little triangle between Berby, Valencia and Rooney has brought several goals recently (I do hope that Berby will play alongside Rooney here tonight).

At the back, we have Rio and Vidic and whilst I am not filled with confidence that they can keep Milan out for 90 minutes, if they can keep them out for 60 minutes, it would probably be enough for Milan to start getting desperate and frustrated, opening gaps for us to exploit in the process.

Evra is a cert for the left and it only remains to be seen whether Rafael is chosen on the right again. He was given a bit of a torrid time in the first leg by Ronaldinho and I do wonder if young Rafael was a little star-struck. Ronaldinho must have been a hero for the young Da Silva’s when they were growing up in Brazil. To find himself actually playing against him must have been a bit surreal for the lad.

Personally, with Valencia on the right as opposed to Nani then I think the right side defence is better covered so I see no reason why Rafael shouldn’t be chosen again here tonight.

The midfield is going to be interesting. Fergie might go for the five man midfield but with Carrick suspended, Scholes playing the whole match on Saturday and Giggs still injured (as well as Anderson), options are somewhat limited.

I can see a good old 4-4-2 with Valencia, Fletcher, Scholes and Park with Fergie looking to bring Scholes off after 60 minutes or so to be replaced by Gibson.

Berby and Rooney up front.

Fergie was bullish after the first leg and insisted that we can make all the goal permutations and their implications irrelevant by just winning this game but it remains to be seen if the team can match Fergie’s warcry on the pitch. Personally, I think we can. Some of our best performances and results of the season have come in the games where nerves and pressure were supposed to get the better of us.

However, I am always wary of backing a team that doesn’t actually need to win so I am more tempted to go for a more neutral market in this one.

I think a lot depends on the first ten minutes of this game. We do have a habit of conceding early goals in Europe but we could also come out all guns blazing and score one of our own early on. If either team scores early then anything could happen here tonight as the whole dynamic of the tie would change.

If neither team scores early then I can see a low-scoring affair. It is hard to imagine Milan keeping us out for 90 minutes but we have to remember that we don’t actually need to score at all.

What you often find in these two legged ties is that both games rarely follow the same pattern. Everyone is expecting another goal fest here tonight but neither team really wants to get into that kind of game. Milan are looking for 2-0, we are looking for 1-0.

For this reason, I am going to go for the Under bet here because I think it offers some value.

The bet is 2 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.00 with Bet365.

Well, this was a weird one. AC Milan caused us a few problems in the first leg and, needing to score a couple of goals here, everyone expected them to come out all guns blazing just as they did in the first game but they didn’t.

Even when Rooney put us 1-0 up after just 13 minutes there didn’t seem to be much coming from AC Milan. By the time Rooney put us 2-0 up just after half-time, the tie was as good as over and it would have been kinder for the referee to just blow the final whistle there and then.

Much has been made of the fact that AC Milan Manager, Leonardo, did not have any Managerial experience before he took on such a high profile job and this game perhaps emphasised the vast gulf between him and Fergie in terms of experience.

I’m sure Leonardo came with some kind of game plan but the players were simply not able to pull it off before Fergie had learned some major lessons from the first game and anticipated and nullfied AC Milan’s likely plan.

For a start, Ji Sung Park was given the job of sticking to Pirlo like glue and he did that job so well that I wouldn’t be surprised if Park didn’t tuck Pirlo up in bed last night and wake him up with a slice of toast and a glass of orange juice this morning.

Next up, Fergie went with the experience of Neville at right back instead of Rafael and Ronaldinho was nowhere near as influential in this game as he had been in the first. Of course, he had one or two moments but Neville was by far the most effective of the two.

And then we come to Rooney. You can make all the plans you like to nullfiy him (and there were some reports prior to the game that the AC Milan camp were confident that they had found the solution) but he is simply unplayable at the moment. Two great goals at the worst possible times (as far as Milan were concerned) and any plans they had were blown clean out of the water.

As the game descended into little more than an exhibition match, we were treated to the David Beckham sideshow as Leonardo brought him on after around an hour. Personally, I felt he should have brought him on much sooner than that. Milan lacked spark all night and needed a lift. Beckham might just have been able to provide it if he had been brought on with the game still alive but by the time he came on, Milan needed to score five and that was never going to happen.

The vast majority of Old Trafford rose to their feet to applaud Beckham as he took to the pitch.

Fergie pulled off another masterpiece of gamesmanship when he took Rooney off just a few moments later however. It brought a halt to the Beckham adulation and forced the crowd to celebrate the REAL hero around here these days… Wayne Rooney.

Anyway, the game plodded on and it was almost too cruel to watch as we dismantled AC Milan and exposed them for what they are: a team of ageing has-beens. It was all rather sad really but I kept remembering how they had destroyed us 3-0 a few years ago so to go one goal better was all the sweeter.

As for the bet, I am annoyed with myself. I was tempted to go for the Manchester United -1.5 Asian Handicap which I noticed was paying out at 3.0 but, perhaps because I am on a losing run of bets, I didn’t have the confidence. I felt that the most we could hope for in this one was 2-0 but there was always a nagging question of us being able to keep Milan out for 90 minutes. I didn’t think for a minute that we could win 4-0 and, to be quite honest, do it so easily.

And so ends AC Milan’s Champions League Campaign for 2009/10 but we march on into the Quarter Final and can look forward to next week’s draw.

It is an open draw and we could be paired up against any of the remaining teams. The only thing that is certain about it is that we won’t have to welcome Ronaldo back for at least another 12 months.