วันศุกร์ที่ 12 ตุลาคม พ.ศ. 2550

Forget Roma repeat - Owen



Owen Hargreaves has warned Manchester United's expectant fans to forget any chance of a repeat of their magnificent seven-goal salvo against Roma this week.

The Serie A giants head to Old Trafford on Tuesday six months after suffering one of the biggest humiliations of their entire history.

Protecting a single-goal advantage from the first leg of their quarter-final, Roma were ravaged by one of the finest performances of Sir Alex Ferguson's entire 20-year reign.

But Hargreaves, who his set to make his European bow for United after finally recovering from the thigh strain he suffered on international duty with England, is looking only for a repeat of the result rather than the scoreline.

"There will be no repeat of the 7-1," he said.

"Those results possibly happen once every three or four years in the entire competition. It is just not going to happen again.

"As long as we get the three points, I will be happy."

Ironically, Hargreaves was watching the game on TV with his Bayern Munich team-mates.

The Germans had a vested interest given if they had beaten AC Milan the following night, they were in line to play the winners.

As it turned out, Milan won, launching a sudden improvement which swept them past United and took them all the way to glory in the final itself when they dismantled Liverpool in Athens.

Once again, the Italians are among the favourites, along with the usual suspects of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
United are amongst them as well now, having restored their tarnished reputation by their run to the last four.

"We are obviously one of the key teams in the Champions League but we can't think about winning it right now," said the Calgary-born player.

"At the moment, we are in the same position as everyone else.

"It is only September, so the final is a long way off yet. The aim is to reach our peak later in the season.
Hopefully we will get into the latter stages and then get the breaks any team needs to progress beyond that."

United have made a positive start to their European campaign, Cristiano Ronaldo netting the only goal against his old club Sporting Lisbon a fortnight ago.

With Roma beating Dynamo Kiev in the Stadio Olimpico, a draw would not be a disastrous result for either side this week, although victory would be a major step towards a place in the last 16.

"We have put ourselves in a good position by winning in Lisbon," observed Hargreaves.

"Now, we have three home games to play. If we win those we will be comfortably into the next round.

"Roma is the next stepping stone towards that. I am sure they will try to come and avenge what happened last season but I expect us to win the game."

For Hargreaves it will be the first taste of Old Trafford on European nights.

There might even be an additional edge given the ill feeling which still exists between the two clubs over the treatment of United fans in Rome last season.

Hargreaves has already been warned what to expect and, having been bought by Sir Alex Ferguson specifically with United's Champions League campaign in mind, he cannot wait.

"I have had a lot of experience at Bayern Munich and been successful in the Champions League, so I am very excited about playing in this competition with United," he said.

"I have heard the European nights at Old Trafford are very special, so I am looking forward to that. The atmosphere against Chelsea last week was exceptional and I look forward to a similar atmosphere, if not better, against Roma."

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