Giggs backs wounded United

By Adrian Clarke
 
Ryan Giggs is confident Manchester United FC can put aside their mounting injury problems by beating Romania's FC Dinamo Bucaresti in their UEFA Champions League qualifying tie this Wednesday.

Missing stars
The 1999 European champions will be without leading scorer Ruud van Nistelrooij, as well as key players such as Louis Saha, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kléberson, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Wes Brown when they arrive for the first leg at the National stadium.

Strength in depth
But the Wales winger insists Sir Alex Ferguson's squad has the strength in depth to cope with the crisis. "When Dinamo see our team-sheet they will see very good players in every position," Giggs told uefa.com. "We have a big squad that's full of top quality players and it's at times like this that you realise why that depth is there. Nobody at United is moaning about bad luck or anything else. We just intend to get on with it and come through the tie."

Striking absentees
The absence of international strikers Van Nistelrooij and Saha is of particular concern to Manchester United [FC] ahead of the new season, and that blow has been compounded by Solskjær being ruled out for the season with a recurrence of a serious knee injury.
 
Attacking options
But Giggs remains upbeat about United's attacking options, and said: "Some people are wondering if we have enough goals in our team. My answer is that we still have more than enough firepower. Most teams would be happy at having the likes of Alan Smith and Paul Scholes up front, with Diego Forlán ready to come on. That's what we have at our disposal and alongside the rest of our team we have to be confident of going through," he claimed.

Uncomfortable prospect
Dinamo, who won the league and cup double in Romania last season, go into the first leg of the qualifier full of confidence having disposed of Slovakian outfit MŠK Zilina 2-1 in the previous round. And with 58,000 passionate fans driving them on against the English giants, it promises to be an uncomfortable evening for Giggs and the rest of his team-mates.

Strong tradition
"Going away in Europe these days is never easy, and we are aware that a big partisan home crowd will be hoping for an upset on Wednesday," Giggs said. "They are a big club with a lot of tradition so we can't afford to underestimate them. If we fall short of our usual standards they will be good enough to capitalise. That's the danger we face.

Dinamo threat
"We've been told that they are very well-organised as a unit which helped them to have a great season domestically last year. I also know that they have two quick strikers up front who can create plenty of problems for our defenders. We'll have to be extremely sharp to deal with their threat. But as long as we put in a professional performance in Bucharest we'll be fine.

Home advantage
"We can go to Romania and get a result, but the most important thing will be to give ourselves the best possible chance to finish the job at Old Trafford," Giggs concluded. "We are always very confident of winning any match at home."
 
Ryan Giggs' personal website is at www.icons.com