UEFA Champions League
Champions League Knockout Round - Second Leg
Old Trafford
Tuesday, 04 March 2008; KO: 19:45 BST
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Manchester United FC have given themselves a good chance of repeating last year's success against French opposition in the UEFA Champions League
first knockout round after securing a 1-1 draw away to Olympique Lyon in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
Carlos Tévez's late equaliser
was a bitter blow to the home team who had taken the lead through
Karim Benzema on 54 minutes,
and it leaves them needing to overcome the odds at Old Trafford.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has virtually a fully fit squad to choose from with a number of players pressing their claims to start.
Ryan Giggs and Nemanja Vidic missed the win over Fulham on Saturday with injury but are expected to be fit in time.
Lyon club captain Cris has declared himself ready after making a return from long-term injury on Saturday.
The defender was out for seven months after rupturing knee ligaments but Jean-Alain Boumsong is eyeing a recall.
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BIG MATCH STATS
Head-to-heads
Olympique Lyon and Manchester United's previous European meetings have all been in the Champions League.
The two matches in Lyon ended in draws - 2-2 in 2004-05 and
1-1 this season
and the only match at Old Trafford so far ended in a 2-1 win for United.
United have 10 survivors from those games - Mikael Silvestre, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, John O'Shea, Gary Neville,
Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Darren Fletcher;
Lyon have six - Gregory Coupet, Anthony Reveillere, Cris, Juninho Pernambucano, Sidney Govou and Hatem Ben Arfa.
European history
Manchester United have won three European trophies - the 1967-68 Champions Cup, 1990-91 Cup Winners' Cup and 1998-99 Champions League.
Olympique Lyon's best European performance came in the 1963-64 Cup Winners' Cup when they reached the semi-finals.
Their Champions League best is three quarter-final appearances in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Last season marked the first time that United had successfully negotiated the last 16 knockout stage, and the first when Lyon had failed to do so.
Current European form
Manchester United are one of three unbeaten teams in this season's Champions League.
Chelsea and FC Barcelona are the others.
The Red Devils have not lost any of their last seven Champions League matches since the
3-0 defeat at AC Milan
in last May's semi-final second leg.
They have won their last nine Champions League home matches since drawing 0-0 with Villarreal in November 2005.
Victory over Lyon will equal Juventus' Champions League record of 10 which was set back in 1997.
Olympique Lyon are unbeaten in five Champions League fixtures and have not conceded a goal in the last two away matches, both of which were won.
Player and disciplinary info
Anthony Reveillere (Olympique Lyon) is suspended for this match.
Juninho Pernambucano, Sidney Govou and Kim Kallstrom (all Lyon) will be suspended if they receive a yellow card in this match and Lyon progress.
If selected, Wes Brown will play his 50th Champions League match.
Brown made his competition debut on 21 October 1998, in the 6-2 away win at Brondby.
Nani is the only Manchester United player to have appeared in all seven of his club's CL matches this season.
Sebastien Squillaci has played every minute of Lyon's CL campaign this season.
Juninho, Hatem Ben Arfa, Govou, Kallstrom and Reveillere have also played in all seven of the French clubs' matches.
Other miscellaneous facts
This is Manchester United's 250th European match.
They have won 132, drawn 65 and lost 52.
Alex Ferguson has been in charge of 163 of these matches, winning 86, drawing 44 and losing 33.
United beat
Fulham 0-3 on Saturday
and have closed the gap on Premier League Arsenal to one point.
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Premiership Table:
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Olympique Lyon took home all three points from their visit to Lille OSC in the French First Division.
Fred scored the only goal to extend Lyon's lead at the top of Ligue 1 to three points over Bordeaux.
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Ligue 1 Table:
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• The game, which marked Ryan Giggs' 100th appearance in the competition and Grégory Coupet's 500th fixture for his club,
extended United's impressive record in France where they have lost only twice in nine visits.
Their home record in this season's competition will also give them confidence they can now complete the job against Alain Perrin's team:
they won all three fixtures on their way to clinching Group F by a five-point margin with only one goal conceded at Old Trafford.
• The only time their defence was breached at home was on Matchday 5 as United overcame Sporting Clube de Portugal 2-1
with defender Abel giving the Portuguese visitors a 21st-minute lead.
Second-half goals from Tévez and Cristiano Ronaldo made it nine straight home victories in the competition for the Manchester side,
with just one defeat in their last 33 games at Old Trafford, against AC Milan in February 2005.
• United will also be defending an unbeaten home record against travellers from across the English Channel in European competition.
In ten previous games they have won seven and drawn three.
One of those victories came at Lyon's expense, a 2-1 triumph in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage,
which was typical in the sense that these encounters have not often produced wide winning margins.
The exception was United's 5-1 trouncing of FC Nantes Atlantique in the 2001/02 second group stage.
• At this stage 12 months ago, United won away to LOSC Lille Métropole through a Giggs goal and by the same scoreline at home with Henrik Larsson on the scoresheet.
At the same time Lyon drew 0-0 away to AS Roma but then lost 2-0 in the home leg.
In the previous three seasons the French champions had always managed to get through this round before meeting defeat at the quarter-final stage.
• Away from home in Group E, Lyon recorded emphatic wins against VfB Stuttgart (2-0) and Rangers FC (3-0) after starting with a 3-0 defeat in Spain against FC Barcelona.
They finished four points behind the 2006 winners in the section.
• The 2004 defeat at Old Trafford was Lyon's last visit to England.
In United's starting lineups were Rio Ferdinand, Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes with Wes Brown and Darren Fletcher coming on as substitutes
while Lyon's side included Cris, Juninho Pernambucano and Sidney Govou.
Anthony Réveillère also figured but is suspended for his team's return to Manchester.
• Lyon's four trips across the Channel before that loss had produced one win, one draw and two defeats.
In their only previous UEFA Champions League fixture in England, they drew 1-1 with Arsenal FC in the 2000/01 second group stage.
Their sole victory came in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup first round at Blackburn Rovers FC in the shape of a 1-0 success.
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