Roma v Man Utd
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL FIRST LEG
v
Venue: Stadio Olimpico
Date: Tuesday 2:45pm kickoff et
BIG MATCH STATS
Head-to-headsAS Roma and Manchester United have met four times before in European competition.
Last season, on 4 April 2007, AS Roma won 2-1 at home in the CL quarter-finals, but Manchester United recorded an emphatic 7-1 victory at Old Trafford six days later, to progress to the semi-finals. It was AS Roma's heaviest ever European defeat and the biggest ever victory margin in the CL knock-out stages.
In this season's group phase, the Red Devils beat the Italians 1-0 at the Theatre of Dreams on 2 October, through a Wayne Rooney goal in the 70th minute. The return match in Rome on 12 December, ended 1-1 through goals by Gerard Pique and Alessandro Mancini.
Roma skipper Francesco Totti has been ruled out of Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final first leg after suffering a thigh injury on Saturday.
Totti, Roma's top scorer with 14 goals, is set to be replaced by Mirko Vucinic.Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar looks set to return to the side after missing the 4-0 win over Aston Villa with a groin injury.
Mikael Silvestre has overcome a knee ligament injury, but Nani and Louis Saha are both ruled out by injury.
French defender Silvestre has not played since suffering the injury against Everton in September.
His return boosts Sir Alex Ferguson's squad after Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs complained of knocks after Saturday's emphatic win over Villa.
Totti suffered his injury in Saturday's 1-1 Serie A draw at Cagliari but hopes to return for the second leg at Old Trafford.
Vucinic has scored four goals in the Champions League this season and was rested for the match against Cagliari.
Central defender Juan has a foot problem so Christian Panucci looks set to cover with MarcoCassetti, Max Tonetto and Cicinho battling for his right-back slot.
The two sides met twice last season at the same stage of the competition, with Roma winning 2-1 in Italy before suffering a humiliating 7-1 thrashing in Manchester.
They have already played twice in this season's group stage, United winning 1-0 at home before the teams drew 1-1 in Rome.
The matches have been marred by violence between supporters and both clubs have been working on ways to avoid further problems.
Italian authorities are providing free transport to the stadium for United fans in a bid to keep them away from any possible trouble.
They have also introduced a voucher system for ticket collection in a bid to stop touts.
Man Utd (from): Van der Sar, Evra, Hargreaves, Ferdinand, Brown, Ronaldo, Anderson, Rooney, Giggs, Park, Vidic, Carrick, Scholes, Pique, O'Shea, Silvestre, Kuszczak, Tevez, Eagles, Heaton, Welbeck.
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