Team news: Cristiano Ronaldo was named on the bench as Manchester United began the defence of their Champions League crown at home to Villarreal. The Portuguese winger's return to the squad for the first time this season arrived in the nick of time as new signing Dimitar Berbatov missed out after sustaining a knee injury.
Alex Ferguson sprang a surprise by playing 20-year-old Jonny Evans in place of Nemanja Vidic — no doubt looking ahead to the clash at Chelsea on Sunday when the Serbian central defender is suspended.
Gary Neville made his 100th Champions League appearance at right-back while Villarreal had a familiar face in former Arsenal winger Robert Pires in their line-up. However, Marcus Senna, one of the stars of Spain's Euro 2008 triumph, began as a substitute.
Theo Walcott was given another chance to impress as Arsenal opened their against Dynamo Kiev in the Ukraine. Emmanuel Adebayor - who netted a hat-trick in the 4-0 demolition of Blackburn Rovers on Saturday - and Robin van Persie once again led the Gunners frontline.
Midfielder Alexander Song replaced Emmanuel Eboue in the only change for the Barclays Premier League club, who included young Mexican forward Carlos Vela, Wales teenager Aaron Ramsey and 16-year-old Jack Wilshere on the bench as neither Sami Nasri (ankle) nor Mikael Silvestre (thigh) had travelled.
Arsenal have never won in the former Soviet Union and have been beaten twice by Dynamo, in 1998 and 2003.
However, with tonight's fixture in the smaller 17,000-capacity Stadion Valeriy Lobanovskyi rather than the Olympic Stadium, which is being rebuilt ahead of Euro 2012, manager Arsene Wenger was confident of a positive result to open Group G.
Dynamo coach Yuri Semin took in the Gunners' impressive win at Ewood Park and was aiming to maintain his side's promising start to the new campaign after they failed to register a single point in Europe's elite club competition last season.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan ended days of speculation when he named his side for the other Group E opener against Aalborg at Parkhead.
The Hoops boss was left with several dilemmas following their impressive 4-2 win over Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday and, in the end, he made a couple of changes for the visit of the Danish club.
Right-back Mark Wilson was dropped for Germany international Andreas Hinkel. Strachan went with a midfield of Shaun Maloney, Scott Brown, Barry Robson and Shunsuke Nakamura, the Japan international replacing Marc Crosas.
Georgios Samaras, with five goals in his last three games, partnered Scott McDonald with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, suspended against Motherwell, starting on the bench.
Aalborg manager Bruce Rioch, aware of his side's fourth-seed rating in the group, started with Marek Saganowski as their lone striker.
Dynamo Kiev: Bogush, Betao, Diakhate, Mykhalyk, Nesmachniy, Vukojevic, Yussuf, Yeremenko, Aliev, Ninkovic, Bangoura. Subs: Shovkovskiy, Ghioane, Morozyuk, Shatskikh, Kravets, Olexander Romanchuk, Asatiani.
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Walcott, Fabregas, Song Billong, Denilson, Van Persie, Adebayor. Subs: Fabianski, Vela, Ramsey, Wilshere, Djourou, Bendtner, Eboue.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Nani, Hargreaves, Fletcher, Park, Rooney, Tevez. Subs: Foster, Brown, Ronaldo, Anderson, Giggs, Vidic, O'Shea.
Villarreal: Diego Lopez, Angel, Rodriguez, Godin, Capdevila, Cani, Eguren, Edmilson, Pires, Fernandez, Franco. Subs: Viera, Santi Cazorla, Ibagaza, Llorente, Javi Venta, Senna, Fuentes.
Celtic: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor, Nakamura, Scott Brown, Robson, Maloney, McDonald, Samaras. Subs: Mark Brown, Vennegoor of Hesselink, Hartley, Wilson, Crosas, Loovens, McGeady.
AaB: Zaza, Beauchamp, Olfers, Jakobsen, Pedersen, Augustinussen, Curth, Johansson, Risgaard, Enevoldsen, Saganowski. Subs: Stenild, Due, Caca, Braemer, Kristensen, Lasse Nielsen, Ronnie Schwartz Nielsen.
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