Manchester United’s midfielder, Michael Carrick, has stated his excitement at the Champions League returning to Old Trafford.
United’s return to the Champions League was less than inspiring, with a 2-1 loss in Eindhoven but, Carrick says that the Red Devils are ready for the prestigious European competition to return to their home ground.
When asked if he thought that the competition missed the Red Devils last season, by Inside United, the English centre-mid said:
“Maybe,”
“I think, sitting here now, if one of the other big teams wasn’t in it then perhaps it wouldn’t quite feel the same.”
“But you’ve got to earn the right to be in it and you must deserve to be there. We missed it badly as a club last year and, as players, we missed it a lot too.”
“As Wolfsburg were probably the toughest of all the potential opponents in pot four when the draw was made, the group was always likely to be tricky and that is proving to be the case after the PSV defeat.”
“You can look it at in a number of ways,”
“To be honest, I think you can spend too much time thinking about it. At the end of day, that’s the group we’ve been given and we have got to back ourselves to go through.”
“They are going to be tough games for different reasons but that is what the Champions League is for – to test yourself against the best in tough conditions. We’ll be ready for that.”
In the 2009 match ups with VfL Wolfsburg, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs scored and Michael Owen sealed a hat-trick.
Carrick reminisces on the previous Wolfsburg fixture:
“I did score against Wolfsburg actually,”
“It was 2009/10. I remember the away game as we had a patched-up team – it was me, Fletch [Darren Fletcher] and Pat [Patrice Evra] at the back.”
I’m pretty sure I played centre-half with Pat and Fletch played right-back but Michael Owen scored a hat-trick. I remember that one!”
“Kevin De Bruyne was a good player for them [before joining Manchester City] but, from what I’ve seen, they are a good team. For German teams to qualify through that league, they must be strong and you have got to take them seriously. It will be a tough game but there are not really any easy games in the Champions League.”
Manchester United kick off against VfL Wolfsburg tomorrow at 19:45 at Old Trafford.
