Champions League preview: Manchester United v Bursaspor
Hmm, what to talk about ahead of this one?
Whatever happens on the pitch at Old Trafford tonight, where Turkish champions Bursaspor face their most glamorous Champions League assignment in their first season in the competition, all of the talk is still likely to be about Wayne Rooney, as a Manchester United without their star striker look to bear their teeth against Turkey’s Green Crocodiles.
Despite Rooney lacking his usual bite for a while now, it still came as a huge shock when Sir Alex Ferguson revealed that the forward wants to leave the club in his press conference ahead of this, on paper United’s easiest match in Group C.
Usually, a pre-match press conference ahead of Champions League group tie is a pretty mundane affair – particularly one with a veteran, savvy manager such as Ferguson who has seen, done and said it all before – but there was a different air about the media gathering that greeted the United boss at Old Trafford yesterday. There was a different air about Ferguson too, who chose not to answer any questions about Rooney and instead read details from a prepared statement, details that included that the forward was “adamant he wants to leave,” that he was “terribly disappointed” about the 24-year-old’s decision, and that “it’s a shock.”
Despite that sideshow – which will now run and run – there is still a football match to be played, and Ferguson has yet more problems ahead of it, problems that are dwarfed by yesterday’s Rooney news admittedly, but problems nonetheless.
“Jonny Evans got a hip injury in training over the last week,” said Ferguson in between talking about his want away star. “He’s out.
“Michael Owen started training this week, but he won’t be involved on Wednesday. I think it’s only fair to him that he should have 10 days’ training before he goes back into competitive games. Ryan Giggs is out with a hamstring injury.
“So there’ll be some changes. That’s not to say we’re taking Bursaspor lightly, though. We hope the changes we make are ones that are easy to carry, in terms of positions where we feel we can cope.”
Not taking Bursaspor lightly is surely sound advice.
Ferguson was stung when his much-changed team played out a disappointing goalless draw with Rangers in the first game of the group stages last month, while he also has previous with Turkish opposition after Beşiktaş ended a 23-match unbeaten home run in the Champions League when they won at Old Trafford 11 months ago.
Bursaspor – who became only the second club from outside of Istanbul to win the Turkish league championship last season – present tonight’s challenge, but they’ll have to play a lot better than they have been doing in Europe to trouble United – even a much changed United.
Top of their domestic league, they suffered on their opening Champions League night as Valencia ran out 4-0 winners in Bursa, before the Green Crocodiles – minus their Celtic-themed green and white hoops – lost 1-0 to Rangers at Ibrox.
Although without a goal in the Champions League, Bursaspor have shared around the strikes in their domestic campaign, with eight different players responsible for the 13 goals they’ve scored in the league so far this season.
Picking from a squad of few familiar names to anyone without a working knowledge of Turkish football, Bursaspor coach Ertuğrul Sağlam – one of Beşiktaş’ all-time leading goalscorers – relies upon the team spirit of his side, with four attacking Argentinians – Federico Insúa, Pablo Batalla, Damián Steinert and Leonel Núñez – key elements in that.
Despite them, and the giant spectre of Rooney hovering over this match, United should be too strong for them.
They’ll win, but whether or not it’s enough to shift Wayne off the back pages is another matter.
Prediction: Manchester United 2 Bursaspor 0
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