edwin van der sar v leonel nunez: the spotlight will be firmly on united's veteran goalkeeper, who turns 40 at the end of the month, in the wake of his howling error against west brom on saturday that gifted the baggies a point from a 2-2 draw.
argentinian striker nunez knows his way to goal after scoring 28 times in 55 appearances for ındependiente, resulting in a summer move to bursaspor.
darren fletcher v pablo batalla: ıf bursaspor are to pose any threat to united, then they will rely on their argentine playmaker batalla to inspire the turks to a shock victory. signed from colombian outfit deportivo cali, batalla scored the title-winning goal against besiktas last season. fletcher will be expect to nullify the threat of the diminutive south american.
dimitar berbatov v dimitar ıvankov: with wayne rooney out of sorts and seemingly out of favour under sir alex ferguson, the onus falls on berbatov to supply the goals.
but after a run of seven in six matches to start the season, he has failed to find the net in his last four games after a match-winning hat-trick against liverpool. berbatov and ıvankov know each other well as they are bulgaria international team-mates, with the bursaspor goalkeeper pivotal to the club's remarkable success of late.
touchline duel
sir alex ferguson v ertugrul saglam: saglam has painful memories of his last visit to the north-west, having presided over besiktas’s 8-0 defeat at liverpool in the champions league group stage in nov 2007.
european rookies bursaspor are marooned at the foot of the group having lost to valencia and rangers, but fenerbahce and besiktas have both triumphed at old trafford, so saglam may hope to redeem himself on english style in spectacular style.
talking tactics
although bursaspor have failed to score in either of their group games this season, the turkish champions have kept ten clean sheets in 13 league games.
ertugrul saglam’s team are well-organised, but goalscoring is a problem. united will aim to score early to avoid the nightmare scenario of a repeat of the dismal 0-0 draw against rangers last month. home victories are key, so united cannot afford to drop more points at old trafford.
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