English giants Manchester United and Arsenal will try to regain lost ground in pusuit of their European ambitions.
PARIS: English giants Manchester United and Arsenal, who saw their high-speed Champions League campaigns hit the buffers last time out, aim to get back on track on Tuesday.
Premiership leaders United travel to Celtic still smarting from a humbling 1-0 defeat at FC Copenhagen which shattered their 100-percent start. Alex Ferguson’s team are still favourites to make the next stage as they have a three-point lead over Celtic and a five-point advantage over Benfica and Copenhagen with just two games left.
Arsenal, last season’s runners-up, boasted two wins from their first two games, but have since taken just a point from two matches with Group G leaders CSKA Moscow.
Arsene Wenger’s Gunners, who take on already-eliminated Hamburg on Tuesday, face a tight race to the finish. CSKA lead by a point from Arsenal and FC Porto going into the last two matches.
“I want to win at Celtic Park because it is important to finish first in the section,” said Ferguson whose team won the first match 3-2 at Old Trafford earlier in the season. “But I would also like to see Celtic finish second. It would be great for them and Scottish football. I’m keen to finish the job in Glasgow though. We wanted to do it against FC Copenhagen earlier this month but lost. Celtic are a better side now and this will not be an easy game.” Celtic, who have won both their home games so against Benfica and FC Copenhagen, slumped to a 3-0 defeat in Portugal last time out but manager Gordon Strachan believes home support will be crucial.
Arsenal could and should have defeated CSKA at the Emirates Stadium three weeks ago but squandered a host of chances. They had 21 shots but were unable to find a way past CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
“We had enough opportunities to win that game and at one point the CSKA centre-back said to me, ‘There’s only one team on the pitch’. Sometimes that’s not enough, though, and at the end we nearly lost the game,” said striker Thierry Henry.
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