Schalke v Manchester United live!

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Preamble:
Like chain-ganged criminals Manchester United have toiled hard on the road this season except in the Champions League, where defensively they've been tighter than Sir Alex Ferguson's lips in front of a BBC camera. The German unterhunds will sure seek to test their solidity tonight, as they're a charming gung-ho bunch who retain enough naivete to engage opponents in naked attacking duels. As their name suggests, they play with null fear. And that's what we all like to see, isn't it?

Ferguson has sprung no surprises with his line-up, the inclusion of Park ahead of Nani not being worth raising an eyebrow over given the manager's lubency to use the Korean in big games. Fabio ahead of his brother Rafael is not especially unexpected either, given the former has been performing well in recent weeks. Darron Gibson does not even make the bench, giving him time, perhaps, to pursue his research into a device for filtering rabid idiots out of cyberspace.

As for Schalke, everyone knows about the threat of canny Raul, and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has earned a reputation as one of the world's best and possibly also a summer move to Old Trafford. There has been much fanfare too about Jefferson Farfan and, of course, their Charles Dickens-reading coach, Ralf Rangnick, is said to be a lot like a man who has been hit over the head with a bag-full of tiny echolocating mammals - totally shrewd. Though perhaps we should not have such Great Expectations of him. Hard Times could be ahead for him and his team.

In other news, this stadium, the Veltins Arena, was the site of one of the most famous fouls in English football history: yes, it is the place where, in the 2006 World Cup quater-final, Ricardo Carvahlo attacked Wayne Rooney's hallowed foot with his testicles, suckering the ref into showing the wronged Englishman ! a red ca rd.

Teams:
Schalke 04: Neuer; Uchida, Matip, Metzelder, Sarpei; Farfan, Papadopoulous*, Jurado*, Baumjohann; Raul*, Edu
Subs: Schober, Escudero, Plestan, Kluge, Charisteas, Karimi, Draxler
* = on booking

United: Van der Sar; Fabio, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Park; Rooney, Hernandez
Subs: Kuszczak, Anderson, Smalling, Nani, Scholes, Rafael, Evans

Ref: C Carballo (Spain)


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