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Unpredictability lifts United higher

Manchester United FC hope to repeat their domestic form against FC Bayern München with both teams looking to secure a quarter-final place.

Since that unforgettable late, late show at Camp Nou three years ago, Manchester United FC have not exactly had things all their own way in their meetings with FC Bayern München. The European champions even gave the English club a taste of their own medicine with an 87th-minute equaliser at the Olympiastadion last November.

'We know how they will play'
After six meetings in three years one would have thought each side knew all there was to know about the other, but according to United’s Ryan Giggs the pendulum could be about to swing back their way when the two old rivals square up again at Old Trafford tonight. "We know them well enough and we know how they’re going to play, but it’s come to the point now where they don’t know what we’re going to do," the United winger told MUTV.

Too cosy
United blame their relative lack of success in Europe since their 1999 triumph on the fact that they have had things too cosy in domestic football and that their pattern of play has become too predictable at the highest level. "We can have no excuses this year," said Giggs, with reference to how much more competitive the FA Premiership has become. "I think when you’re on the edge and you need to perform, you produce your best football."

Perfect pair
The arrival of Ruud van Nistelrooij seems to have given United’s game an extra dimension and his partnership with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who scored that dramatic winner in Barcelona three years ago, is turning into one every bit as good if not better than the Andy Cole-Dwight Yorke axis. United have won all eleven games in which the pair have played together, with Van Nistelrooij scoring 13 goals and Solskjaer eleven.

More rested
Another factor in United’s favour as they go into tonight’s crucial game, one which will give the winners a place in the quarter-finals, is that they are more rested than Bayern. The German players have been complaining about their workload of late. While United had last weekend off, Bayern went from an exhausting German Cup semi-final against FC Schalke 04 last Wednesday into a fiecely contested local derby against TSV 1860 München at the weekend.

Combative cup tie
The Cup game, which was sufficiently combative to produce 16 yellow cards and a sending-off for Bayern’s Samuel Kuffour, ended in defeat for Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side after extra-time while the 1. Bundesliga game resulted in a 2-1 win for the champions, thanks to a last-minute goal by Thorsten Fink. Bayern are hoping that it has helped them regain that winning mentality which seems to have eluded them of late in their domestic league.

Key injuries
On top of that they are still not back to full strength with injuries likely to keep out Mehmet Scholl, Hasan Salihamidzic, Robert Kovac, Pablo Thiam and Carsten Jancker, the latter’s most recent attempt at a comeback foundering in training last weekend.

French dimension
There is a danger, of course, that should FC Nantes Atlantique be comfortably ahead before the finish of the other Group A game, against Boavista FC, United and Bayern may decide to play for the draw which would send both sides through. Hopefully, both will be too embroiled in their own duel to worry about what is happening in France. But Hitzfeld admitted he would be happy with a high-scoring draw because that would put them ahead of United.

'Head-to-head comparison'
"A 2-2 draw would be a success," he said. "We go there to achieve a result which puts us first when it comes to a head-to-head comparison. Our situation could become dangerous if we lost this game and Boavista won. We could go into our last game against Nantes under enormous pressure."

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