Keane edge returning to United game

Emmet Malone hears the relish for battle in Manchester Unitedskipper's voice as he and his boss talk up their prospects of upsetting thearistocrats of Real Madrid

It was one of those moments. A sideways glance from Roy Keane and a Spanish journalist is left to lick his wounds. He had asked whether the "Italia" T-shirt the Corkman was wearing yesterday suggested a preference for Juventus over Barcelona in the next round of this Champions League. There was almost a hint of pity in the look the United skipper fired in his direction by way of a reply.

Keane, though, was relaxed and quietly reflective for the bulk of the 40 or so minutes he sat alongside Alex Ferguson during yesterday's pre-match press conference at Old Trafford. As his manager joked about the psychic powers he had employed to remove Raul from tonight's already daunting equation, the 31-year-old midfielder readily conceded the scale of the challenge presented by those Madrid players who did manage to make it to Manchester on Monday.

"All I can say," remarked the Corkman, "is that whatever the result in this game they'll go home knowing they've been involved in a real game of football, which I don't think was the case in the first leg . . . well, not the first half, in any case."

While the 3-1 deficit carried over from that game presents both men with the sternest test they will have faced this season it also offers both an enormous opportunity. If Ferguson can orchestrate another of United's famous fightbacks tonight it will undoubtedly go down as one of the most enduring achievements in his long reign at the club. If Keane can rediscover his best form and provide the inspiration required for what will have to be a dramatically improved collective display then he will have done much more than simply silence those who sniped that at the Bernabeu two weeks ago we had witnessed the beginning of his end.

Asked if he still believed he was capable of recapturing the sort of form he produced four years ago when helping United to overwhelm Juventus late on away from home in the semi-finals he was emphatic. "Without a doubt, yeah. I think a lot's been made of my injuries and some of that is my own fault, to an extent, I've probably talked too much about them myself at times.

"I feel really strong at the moment, physically and mentally. I feel a lot of the sharpness that's been missing is back and I'm really looking forward to getting out there for this game."

He knows, however, he is not the only one who will need to improve his game if the advantage Vicente del Bosque's side takes into the match is to be seriously threatened.

"The spirit within the team going into this game is as good as it's ever been during the 10 years I've been at then club but there are lessons that have to be learned from the first game.

"If anything, we stood off them too much in Madrid. We were on the back foot for most of the match and while you have to give credit to them for the pressure they put us under we have to be strong enough, to be brave enough, to play our game because we've been scoring a lot of goals lately and more than that, we've been creating so many chances, which is encouraging going into a game like this."

Ferguson went further when asked about his side's prospects of scoring the goals required.

"I think we can score goals against them all right," he declared brightly before adding, "the $64,000 question is whether we can stop them scoring against us."

Without the competition's most prolific scorer to cope with, the chances of his defence getting by this evening are, at least, improved but when asked who would be missed more on the night by their respective teams, Paul Scholes or Raul - the man he described as the world's best player two weeks ago - he was predictably circumspect.

"I don't know," he replied, "it's a good question. But what I would say is that Raul has done his damage. He scored those goals in the first match. He's still a massive loss to them but we'd have been looking to Scholes to help get goals in this game and he'll certainly be missed."

Even if the England international, who has scored 19 goals in European competition, was available, Ferguson added, it would still be a major challenge to claw back the advantage Real Madrid have.

"But I don't believe this tie is over, not for a minute. But we've had a lot of challenges in the past and coped all right. That's what it's all about."