How many times did we see it last year? ‘Berbatov to Valencia on the right, his cross comes in and Rooney puts it away”. It all came to an abrupt end with a simple, harmless looking challenge against Glasgow Rangers in September and we have not seen the 25 year old Ecuador international since. Well here he is, back in training and raring to go with Manchester United fans looking forward to seeing him back in action. But a word of warning, the last thing Valencia will need is to have unrealistic expectations placed upon him. He has come back from a horrendous injury and time – lots of it, will be required for him to find his old form.

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How many times did we see it last year? ‘Berbatov to Valencia on the right, his cross comes in and Rooney puts it away”. It all came to an abrupt end with a simple, harmless looking challenge against Glasgow Rangers in September and we have not seen the 25 year old Ecuador international since. Well here he is, back in training and raring to go with Manchester United fans looking forward to seeing him back in action. But a word of warning, the last thing Valencia will need is to have unrealistic expectations placed upon him. He has come back from a horrendous injury and time – lots of it, will be required for him to find his old form.

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Turkish champions Bursaspor visit Old Trafford on Wednesday night without a single point – or even a goal, to their name after the opening two matches in the Champions League. So does that promise an easy three points for Manchester United? Not so fast. The newcomers were given a harsh lesson in European football with visiting Valencia giving them a 4-0 thumping in their first game but they appear to be fast learners as they only went down 1-0 to Glasgow Rangers in a hard fought 90 minutes two weeks later.

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Sir Alex Ferguson brought Manchester United to the Mestalla and got precisely what he wanted. Make no mistake about it, this United formation was designed to avoid defeat and be on the lookout to snatch a winner. And despite Valencia dominating possession throughout the game, late substitutes Federico Macheda and Javier Hernandez combined to do just that five minutes from the end. As he has done so many times in Europe over the years, Sir Alex got his tactics exactly right.

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So all of a sudden the task facing Manchester United in the group stages of the Champions League is not as straight forward as it looked a month ago is it? A first up scoreless draw with Glasgow Rangers at Old Trafford was taken with a slight shrug of the shoulders as merely a blip, and it could still be. But unless United can at least avoid defeat at Valencia on Wednesday, the unthinkable may not prove to be so far fetched.

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Tuesday nights European Champions League first round clash with Glasgow Rangers at Old Trafford is the second so called ‘Battle of Britain’ in the last seven years. The two sides met at Ibrox on October22, 2003 where United took the three points with a Phil Neville goal after just five minutes. The English champions did not have everything their own way however as Rangers threw everything at United and were considered unlucky not to at least get a share of the points.

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