Fergie expects tough challenge from Milan

(GSM) – Sir Alex Ferguson expects a more tough challenge from Milan and he still believes they are the biggest danger to Manchester United’s hopes of reclaiming the trophy.

”I watched the Milan derby and Inter played fantastic,” said Ferguson. ”They were very good on that night and there has been a big improvement with them, AC Milan have experience of big games too and we have to be cautious how we approach this game, so I would say there is an improvement in the Italian sides.”

Ferguson, however, still backs the Spanish sides to put up the biggest challenge and Barcelona in particular.

”Milan had their dominance with people like (Paolo) Maldini and (Franco) Baresi, then, at the start of the decade, Valencia, Real and Barca were all in the semis,” he said.

”In recent years English teams have done well and got to a lot of semi-finals and finals. But you have to go with Barcelona. They have the experience of winning it last year and they are top of their own league too. You cannot write off a team with all that quality.” Fergie added.

He also believes it is good time to take AC Milan, are a different side since the departure of Kaka, who had shown wonderful performance at San Siro against Red Devils and is in confident mood Manchester United can overcome the Italian giants in the Champions League. Beckham against his side for the first time is a good plot line, although probably not the key story of today evening’s drama. That could be Star Rooney versus Alessandro Nesta, Darren Fletcher versus Andrea Pirlo, even Patrice Evra against Pato

He added: “Our expectations are high. They always are with our good players and good team. Milan have excellent footballers, five or six have maybe won the European Cup twice, but we have experience too.”