Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
Manchester United play Basel tonight in their second Champions League group-stage game of the season, in what will no doubt be a game that Sir Alex Ferguson will demand anything but a win from.
Basel, one of Swizterland’s most successful club sides have been a regular visitor to European football’s most-watched club competition and this season’s campaign will be their sixth during the last decade. This season for the first time in their history, Basel made it through to the group-stages without having to go through the qualifying rounds due to a vacant group-stage spot being available due to Barcelona winning the competition last year.
So far in their domestic season which started in July, Basel are currently sitting in fourth position, a full 8 points behind the leaders Luzern. That doesn’t quite tell the whole story as despite winning three of their last four games, the side aiming for a hat-trick of titles this season started badly only winning one of their first six league games this season.
At the weekend Basle drew 1-1 away to FC Thun, who United’s opponents at the weekend Stoke City knocked out in the Europa League qualifiers and fell further behind the league leaders Luzern. The pressure will surely be on their manager Thorsten Frink to turn things around in the remaining 26 games left in the Swiss season and given the talent that he has within his squad, there’s no reason why Basel can’t turn that that points deficit.
United will be going into the game without several key players (Javier Hernandez, Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic to name a few) but should have the quality and depth in their squad tonight to cope without those stars. The same cannot be said for Basel who will find it hard to muster some form of a challenge tonight without the suspended duo of Benjamin Huggel and Xherdan Shaqiri. Valention Stocker and Gilles Yapi-Yapo are missing too, meaning Basle’s youngsters will be under more pressure than ever tonight.
However perhaps their youngsters will thrive on playing on the big-occasion and if they can work harder, it will actually benefit United’s players and make them work harder which would be good to see. Interestingly enough tonight’s game will be the third time United have met Basel with the teams meeting each other twice in the second group-stage of the 2002/03 Champions League, with this corresponding fixture ending in a 1-1 draw which saw Darren Fletcher make his long-awaited first team debut before being replaced by David Beckham.
So what can we expect from tonight’s game. What will be the key battles on the pitch?
Rio Ferdinand v Alexander Frei
Rio Ferdinand certainly hasn’t had the easiest of years. After suffering from injury last season, he had to return home before the World Cup even started and lost the England captaincy as a result. Despite his injury problems this season, there’s no doubt he still has the experience for the big-match occasion.
Alexander Frei, who Ferdinand will have to mark tonight, would still be playing in the Bundesliga but for his injury record. Switzerland’s all-time leading scorer has not had a bad career now and returned to his first club Basel after 11 years away to wind down his career in style. Frei still though has the pace and shot on him to hurt United tonight and will make Ferdiannd work hard tonight as a result.
Anderson v Radoslav Kovac
It was a credit to Anderson’s improved performances this season, that there were as many writers as fans scrutinising Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to leave the Brazilian out of United’s line-up for their first Champions League group match against Benfica earlier this month.
The Brazilian has started the season brilliantly and now appears to be finally producing the kind of form that his talent when he first signed in 2007 suggested that he could. He is a better footballer than his counterpart in midfield Radolslav Kovac is and has the pace and imagination to outwit the Czech Kovac though will be looking to show fans in England that he is a good player after failing to shine previously in the country with West Ham.
Dimitar Berbatov v Aleksandar Dragovic
Make no mistake about it, tonight Dimitar Berbatov will be expected to lead the line for United and get on the score-sheet. Incredibly it’s been 20 games since the big Bulgarian last scored in the competition with his last goals coming against Celtic in the 2008/09 group-stages which is a mind-boggling statistic.
Berbatov was seen as the missing jigsaw piece to give Sir Alex further success in Europe but a mixture of indifferent performances and the signing of Javier Hernandez last season have put paid to that ‘prophecy’ becoming reality. Tonight with Rooney and Chichartio injured, he has to deliver and bully young Aleksandar Dragovic or the doubts about his future will continue to grow bigger.
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In terms of a prediction for the game tonight, as I stated earlier on in a predictions article, at the start of the month, I believe tonight will be our easiest game of the month and can see United strolling to a comfortable 3-0 home win.
The facts are that this game was going to be tough for Basel anyway with or without their star players and after only beating Galati last time-out in the competition thanks to a late penalty by Frei, United even with our own injury problems have enough quality and goals to easily dispose of the Swiss champions.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
