United fly with

DESTINY CALLS

LONDON: With hopes of a top-four finish in the Premier League fading, Manchester United approach Tuesday’s Champions League last 16 first-leg match at Greek champions Olympiakos desperate for a positive result.

Not only does the competition represent United’s last realistic hope of silverware this season, but David Moyes’s side may need to win the Champions League just to qualify for next season’s tournament.

United are currently 11 points below Liverpool, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League place, and with only 11 games of the season remaining, qualification via the league may already be beyond them.

United have won only four of their 11 matches since the turn of the year, but the Champions League provided a respite from their domestic woes during the European autumn.

The three-time continental champions qualified comfortably as Group A winners, winning four and drawing two of their six matches and enjoying handsome 4-2 and 5-0 victories over last year’s runners-up Bayer Leverkusen.

Nevertheless, with Arsenal and Manchester City having already lost their own last 16 first-leg matches, to Bayern Munich and Barcelona respectively, the tournament final in Lisbon on May 24 remains a long way off.

“Only one team can win it, and it’s very hard,” United striker Robin van Persie told Champions magazine.

“It’s a trophy many players don’t win; once, if you’re very lucky. You have a couple of players who’ve won it more than once, but it’s a very special trophy everyone wants to win every year.

PASSION AND ENTHUSIASM

United warmed up for Tuesday’s game at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus by winning 2-0 at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday, with Van Persie opening the scoring from the penalty spot.