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Manchester United’s visit to a raucous Estadi de Mestalla will
be without last season’s goal king, Wayne Rooney. The official reason given for
Rooney’s absence is that the striker has failed to recover from the ankle knock
he suffered in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Bolton.

The Red Devils, who have conceded nine goals in their last five
games, will however be buoyed by the return to defensive duties of Rio
Ferdinand.

“It is hard to explain what is going wrong. A lot of the goals
we have conceded have been from set pieces. It is not the true Manchester
United,” said Nemanja Vidic about the goals United conceded, mostly when away
from home.

Against Valencia, who are riding high in the La Liga and are yet
to taste defeat this season,United must keep a tight defensive line against the
likes of Roberto Soldado, a nippy Pablo Hernández and Juan Manuel Mata.

Vidic seems to know this.

“We have to be much better in Spain than we were at Bolton.
Valencia are in decent form and top of La Liga. That shows how well they are
playing at the moment,” the defender said.

Key Battles

Mehmet Topal v Darren Fletcher

Topal is Valencia’s midfield enforcer and the clash with Darren
Fletcher will be the key to this match.

Roberto Soldado v Rio Ferdinand

Valencia’s in-form striker will be facing a defender that has
played just 180 minutes in the new season and the Spaniard wants to establish
himself after leaving Real Madrid.

David Navarro v Dimitar Berbatov

Berbatov is the man of the hour for United but against Navaro,
he will be meeting a defender who will go to any length to get his job done.
Navarro had sparked an infamous brawl in a Champions League tie with Inter
Milan in 2007 during which he broke the nose of an opponent.

Rafa’s experience should count

Inter will look to bounce back from the 0-1 loss to Roma last
weekend at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza as they face a luckless Werder Bremen who
lie in 12th position in the Bundesliga. The german team have conceded 14 goals
and though Inter had more of the scoring chances against Roma at the weekend,
they fell to a 92nd minute goal by Marco Vucinic. Against a very unpredictable
Werder Bremen, Rafael Benitez will be counting on his Champions League
experiences not to repeat the mistakes made against Roma.

The good thing for the Spanish tactician is that his teams are normally
better prepared for knock-out football. The German team is plagued by injuries.
Mezut Ozil was sold to Real Madrid without being replaced and captain, Torsten
Frings has been sidelined with a hip complaint. However, Inter will have to be
wary of Marco Marin as he tries to run the show for the ‘Die Grun-Weißen’ – the
green and whites in the middle of the park.