Nigeria Content Online

With
a title-deciding match looming against Chelsea on Sunday, Manchester
United manager, Alex Ferguson has decided to rest some of his players
against Schalke today in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League.
United hold a handsome lead of 2-0 going into today’s match.

United did not play
well against Arsenal on Sunday and it was very surprising that as soon
as Arsenal could get a hold of Wayne Rooney, United lost all their bite
going forward. So Ralf Rangnick and his players will have at least one
strategy today; hound Rooney wherever he is on the pitch.

Another factor is
that some players may be prioritising matches in their head – thinking
which match is more important, so it will be Ferguson’s job to field
the players that will concentrate against the Germans for 90 minutes.

Ferguson hinted on
what his line-up could look like today; “I will make some changes on
Wednesday without question. I will bring Paul Scholes back in, Dimitar
Berbatov, Michael Owen.

“We’ll need to do
that but I will probably keep my experienced players at the back. We
have a big week ahead. Wednesday is a European semi-final second leg
and then the game on Sunday. Two massive games, so we will regroup and
freshen it up.” Schalke 04 goalkeeper,

A class apart in Gelsenkirchen

Manuel Neuer
produced a series of saves at the Veltins Arena to deny the Red Devils
a more comprehensive victory and the German number one will try to deny
United more goals as he visits the Theatre of Dreams for the first time.

The first leg
showed that United were far superior to their opponents but they need
another stellar display tonight to book their ticket to Wembley for the
finals on May 28 to face Barcelona.

But legendary
Schalke striker, Raul remains optimistic and that optimism must have
arisen from the 71 goals that the Spaniard has scored in European
competitions.

Raul said, “There
are 90 minutes left and we’re not going to just give up; we know it’s
very difficult but will try to at least leave a good account of
ourselves.”

Schalke lost 4-1 to Bayern Munich at the weekend but that defeat could be easily blamed on preparing mentally for today’s match.

One of the star
performers for the Germans in that first leg loss was Neuer, who is
also one of the goalkeepers that United is looking at to replace Edwin
van der Sar, who is retiring at the end of the season. But Neuer’s
agent, Thomas Kroth has said Neuer was not thinking of playing in
England.

“Manuel is not
interested in joining Manchester United. He is not interesting in
leaving Germany. He will stay in Germany. That is definite.”

There is also a definite time line to who qualifies for the final of the Champions League and that time line starts at 19:45!