Team News
The Man United squad flew out to France today, absentees were Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, Ryan Giggs, Ji-Sung Park, Anderson, Jonny Evans and Antonio Valencia. Youngsters Ryan Tunnicliffe and Josh King both travelled.
Squad: Van Der Sar, Kuszczak, Lindegaard, Vidic, Smalling, O'Shea, Evra, Brown, Rafael, Fabio, Scholes, Nani, Gibson, Carrick, Fletcher, Obertan, Tunnicliffe, Bebe, Rooney, Berbatov, Hernandez and King.
Marseille will be without Andre-Pierre Gignac who picked up a groin injury during a 2-1 win over St Etienne at the weekend. Loic Remy and Brandao also picked up an injury during the win but Marseille are confident that they will both recover in time.
Matthieu Valbuena may return from injury, he has been suffering from a knee problem and has returned to training but the game may come too early for him.
Group Stage
Marseille qualified out of Group F as group runners up, Chelsea finished top of the group. Also in group F were Spartak Moscow and MSK Zilina.
The French side won four out of their six games played in the group, they lost the other two matches. The French side scored 12 and conceded only three goals.
Manchester United are unbeaten in this season's Champions League, after four wins and two draws in the group stage. Man United only conceded one goal in all of the games, scoring seven in the process.
Previous Meetings
The last time the two clubs met was back in the 1999/2000 Champions League group stage. The first match was played at Old Trafford, which Man United won 2-1. That was then followed a few months later with a 2-1 win for Marseille at the Stade Velodrome.
Recent Form
Marseille: WWWDW
19th Feb: Marseille 2-1 St Etienne (Coupe de la ligue)
12th Feb: Sochaux 1-2 Marseille (Ligue 1)
5th Feb: Marseille 1-0 Arles (Ligue 1)
30th Jan: AS Monaco 0-0 Marseille (Ligue 1)
16th Jan: Auxerre 0-2 Marseille (Ligue 1)
Marseille are third in the Ligue 1 table. They beat St Etienne 2-1 at the Stade Velodrome at the weekend, which closed the gap down to three points on Ligue 1 leaders Lille.
Man United : WWLWW
19th Feb: Man United 1-0 Crawley (FA Cup)
12th Feb: Man United 2-1 Man City (Premier League)
5th Feb: Wolves 2-1 Man United (Premier League)
1st Feb: Man United 3-1 Aston Villa (Premier League)
29th Jan: Southampton 1-2 Man United (FA Cup)
United beat non-league side Crawley Town 1-0 at Old Trafford in the FA Cup at the weekend. In the league, Man United are four points ahead of second place Arsenal after 26 games played.
Officials
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)
Assistant Referees: Mark Borsch (Germany) and Thorsten Schiffner (Germany)
Additional Assistant Referees: Babak Rafati (Germany) and Peter Sippel (Germany)
Fourth Official: Knut Kircher (Germany)
Brych has officiated four matches so far in this years competition, he has shown 11 yellow cards and is yet to show a red card.
Wow nice article, both teams are on good form going in. Should be a very close tight game, not too happy with these niggling injuries popping up and the performance of the second string side against Crawley, can we really expect them to step it up for a game like this if called upon. I for one sure hope so. 1-1 prediction for me, away goal will be crucial in this game.