United won't play games

It won’t be the end of the world if United lose at Celtic Park on Wednesday night.

With a trip to Villarreal and a home tie against Danish minnows Aalborg to come, the Reds would still be odds-on favourites to qualify from Group E.


But Sir Alex Ferguson is determined this season’s group stage campaign won’t go down to the wire.

“Hopefully I can give a few players some minutes on the pitch [against Celtic],” he told MUTV in an exclusive interview at the Reds’ team hotel.

“But I’ll be picking a team to get a result. That’s the important thing: we’re not fiddling about here.

“We did that in 2006 and threw away a game [against FC Copenhagen in Denmark]. We can’t afford to do that.”

On that occasion, United had to scrape through on Matchday 6 with a come-from-behind win against Benfica at Old Trafford.

Victory on Wednesday night would secure the Reds’ passage to the next phase and allow Sir Alex the freedom to rest and rotate players in the remaining group games.

See the manager’s exclusive pre-match interview on MUTV at 18:30 on Wednesday night.