Preview: United v Roma 9/ 4/2007
LOUIS Saha has been ruled out of Manchester United's Champions League quarter-final decider against AS Roma with a hamstring injury. The Frenchman has not featured for the Red Devils in over a month but had been expected to make his comeback at Portsmouth last weekend. Instead, Saha was forced to return to Manchester for further treatment after suffering a recurrence of the problem in training on Friday. And, while Sir Alex Ferguson is hopeful the former Fulham star will be fit for Saturday's FA Cup semi-final with Watford at Villa Park, Tuesday's Old Trafford clash comes too soon. "We have to err on the side of caution," said United boss Ferguson. "There is no point bringing someone back who is not 100% fit and risk further injury." United will also be without suspended midfielder Paul Scholes, plus Gary Neville (ankle), Nemanja Vidic (collarbone) and Mikael Silvestre (shoulder). In addition, Park Ji-sung is also ruled out for at least a fortnight after suffering a knee injury in the win over Blackburn on March 31. "We are still assessing Ji-sung to see what we do next with him," said Ferguson. Riches "Hopefully the news will be good and he will only be out for a couple of weeks." Meanwhile, Roma coach Luciano Spalletti admits he has an embarrassment of riches as he prepares for the game. The Eternal City club rested several usual starters for Saturday's 2-0 win over Catania with squad players Francesco Tavano and Mirko Vucinic supplying the goals. However, Spalletti admits Tavano has little chance of facing United at Old Trafford where the visitors will defend their 2-1 lead. "The reason that Tavano has so little opportunity to show how good he is is me," said Spalletti. "It's my fault but I have not been able to give him many opportunities. You can see how good he is." Italy World Cup winners Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi as well as Alessandro Mancini, Cristian Chivu and Christian Panucci were all rested for the Catania match which was played on neutral territory at Lecce. Totti is expected to have recovered from his sciatic nerves problem but Roma's third World Cup winner, Simone Perrotta, will miss the match through suspension. Perrotta was born in Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester and had been looking forward to playing in the city he left at the age of five when his parents decided to go and live in the southern Italian province of Calabria. However, Spalletti has an obvious replacement for Perrotta in David Pizarro, the Peruvian midfielder who was ruled out of the first leg with suspension. As for Montenegrin international Vucinic, who has scored goals against United and Catania, Spalletti said after Saturday's game: "Mirko has done very well for us both today and against Manchester." Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, O'Shea, Brown, Ferdinand, Cathcart, Heinze, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick, Eagles, Giggs, Richardson, Solskjaer, Smith, Rooney, Dong. AS Roma (from): Doni, Cassetti, Mexes, Chivu, Panucci, De Rossi, Pizarro, Wilhelmsson, Taddei, Mancini, Totti, Curci, Faty, Defendi, Ferrari, Vucinic, Rosi Key opponent: Francesco Totti - His ability was there for all to see in the first leg and he makes the Giallorossi tick Prediction: United 1 Roma 0 - United's defence, and Van der Sar, should have been given a wake-up call after two poor performances. If they keep their concentration United can squeeze through. Thanks & God Bless You Samuel Rismana S [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
