Manchester United eye Champions League spot

Manchester: The Champions League theme music will boom out over Old Trafford again on Tuesday when Manchester United return to the competition against Belgian side Club Brugge in the play-off round.

 

After a first season out of the competition in 19 years, United have been led back by Louis van Gaal, who won the Champions League with a brilliant, young Ajax team in 1995 and took Bayern Munich to the final in 2010.

 

Fourth in the Premier League last season, United have opened the new campaign with 1-0 wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, and Juan Mata believes Friday’s victory at Villa Park showed the team’s readiness.

 

“I think we can improve, but six points from six points is a very good start for us and now we have a lot of confidence ahead of the Champions League play-off,” the Spanish midfielder told MUTV.

 

“The clean sheet is a very positive factor. We’re talking about having new players at the back and they’re doing great as well.”

 

It is a year and four months since United last played in the Champions League, losing to Bayern in the quarter-finals in April 2014, and it says much about the profound change the club has undergone since then that only four of the players who played in the 3-1 second-leg defeat in Munich are likely to line up against Club Brugge.

 

Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Darren Fletcher, Shinji Kagawa and Danny Welbeck have left the club, while David Moyes is no longer in the dug-out, having been sacked 13 days later.

 

Of those who made it onto the pitch against Bayern that remain, Phil Jones is currently sidelined with thrombosis, Antonio Valencia and Javier Hernandez are out of favour and goalkeeper David de Gea has been removed from the team after becoming unsettled by Real Madrid’s interest.

 

That leaves Wayne Rooney, Chris Smalling, Michael Carrick and Adnan Januzaj, a late substitute at the Allianz Arena, who came in to score the winner at Villa. Januzaj is one of two Belgian players in van Gaal’s squad alongside Marouane Fellaini, who is serving a three-match domestic suspension but could play.