Lille go for revenge

PARIS – Old Trafford will be a hotbed of emotion for the visit of temperamental French outfit Lille to Manchester United in the Champions League last 16, second leg tonight.

United hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg in northern France and are overwhelming favourites to progress to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2003. But it was the nature of that 1-0 victory which has light a fire under the return leg in England with Lille still feeling an acute sense of injustice.Wily United winger Ryan Giggs snatched victory for the visitors with a clever quickly taken free-kick while Lille were still trying to organise their defensive wall.The Lille players felt so outraged they started to walk off the pitch in what, according to their boss Claude Puel, was an acceptable form of protest, apparently common in the French league but unseen outside of France.United are almost certain to be missing star England forward Wayne Rooney, who injured his knee against Liverpool on Saturday, while Sweden forward Henrik Larsson should make his penultimate appearance in a red shirt before his loan period ends and he returns to Sweden with Helsingborgs.Lille also have injury problems with playmaker Yohan Cabaye and top scorer Mathieu Bodmer both out of the return leg but they will at least welcome back right winger Kader Keita.In London, Arsenal are desperate to save their season but need to overturn a 1-0 deficit against Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven to do so.Arsenal trail United by 20 points in the league and in the last 10 days they lost in the final of the League Cup to Chelsea and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn.Talisman Thierry Henry is rated at only 50-50 for the game but with what is at stake, Arsene Wenger is expected to take a gamble on his striker.Another side with injury difficulties is Real Madrid who travel to Bavaria to face Bayern Munich with a slender 3-2 lead from the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid.The last of the four games takes place in Milan with AC Milan hosting Scottish champions Celtic in a tie delicately poised after a 0-0 first leg draw.Nampa-AFPBut it was the nature of that 1-0 victory which has light a fire under the return leg in England with Lille still feeling an acute sense of injustice.Wily United winger Ryan Giggs snatched victory for the visitors with a clever quickly taken free-kick while Lille were still trying to organise their defensive wall.The Lille players felt so outraged they started to walk off the pitch in what, according to their boss Claude Puel, was an acceptable form of protest, apparently common in the French league but unseen outside of France.United are almost certain to be missing star England forward Wayne Rooney, who injured his knee against Liverpool on Saturday, while Sweden forward Henrik Larsson should make his penultimate appearance in a red shirt before his loan period ends and he returns to Sweden with Helsingborgs.Lille also have injury problems with playmaker Yohan Cabaye and top scorer Mathieu Bodmer both out of the return leg but they will at least welcome back right winger Kader Keita.In London, Arsenal are desperate to save their season but need to overturn a 1-0 deficit against Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven to do so.Arsenal trail United by 20 points in the league and in the last 10 days they lost in the final of the League Cup to Chelsea and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn.Talisman Thierry Henry is rated at only 50-50 for the game but with what is at stake, Arsene Wenger is expected to take a gamble on his striker.Another side with injury difficulties is Real Madrid who travel to Bavaria to face Bayern Munich with a slender 3-2 lead from the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid.The last of the four games takes place in Milan with AC Milan hosting Scottish champions Celtic in a tie delicately poised after a 0-0 first leg draw.Nampa-AFP