Manchester United will face Rangers in the Champions League on Wednesday at the Ibrox without their first choice defensive pairing of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.
Ferdinand and Vidic have only recently been united at the heart of United defence after Rio made successful comeback from a back injury that troubled him all of last season. Since coming back, the pair has started in all but one of their last six fixtures,
the away trip to Bursaspor in Turkey when the doctors advised Rio against making the four-hour trip to Turkey.
Now Ferdinand is set to miss another European fixture and so will his sidekick as Sir Alex Ferguson has decided to rest the pair and put his trust in youngsters like Chris Smalling and Johnny Evans for his side’s penultimate game in the Champions League
group stages.
Both Rio and Vidic trained at Manchester United’s Carrington training ground on Tuesday morning but the manager has decided to give their ace centre backs a deserved rest as United have already qualified for the knockout stages and the manager feels that
his youngsters are good enough to fend off the Scots.
Sir Alex is due to give a press briefing ahead of this Champions league clash on Tuesday at 1630 GMT and will further explain his decision to leave out the star defenders.
Some players who missed the training session on Tuesday were Darren Fletcher, Darron Gibson, Gary Neville, Owen Hargreaves and Michael Owen.
On the other hand Rangers have injury worries of their own ahead of this all important clash for them as their star defender Madjid Bougherra has been ruled out of the match with a back injury and joins Maurice Edu, who is nursing a knee knack while James
Beatie and Andy Webster are also on the treatment table.
But there is some good news for Walter Smith as Sasa Papac is expected to return following his two games absence due to head injury.
Ahead of the game Sir Alex has insisted that he will give Wayne Rooney his first start since coming back from the United States in this game and may also be joined by Ryan Giggs, who has also returned to full fitness ahead of the game.
Rangers are currently lying in the third place in the group standings and are very well aware of the fact they have to win their next two games if they are to make their qualification to the next round guaranteed.
Ranger’s last game in the group stages is an absolutely winnable tie against Turkish minnows Bursaspor but the tie will be rendered meaningless if they fail to beat United at Ibrox on Wednesday.
The last time these two sides met was a few weeks ago when Rangers held Manchester United to a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford and Walter Smith hopes that his side can go one better in front of the home crowd on Wednesday.
The Scottish Champions are unbeaten at home in the Champions League this season having beaten Bursaspor 1-0 and drawing 1-1 with Valencia in their previous home fixtures but Sir Alex’s side have not lost in any competition this season and the record has
stretched to 25 games now.
United have hardly hit top gear in any game this season but they are unbeaten in 8 of their last 9 away fixtures in their competition and will prove to be a tough test for Rangers but the Glasgow side will somehow have to come up with the goods if they are
to progress beyond the group stages of the Champions League.
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