Source: Eurosport
Carrick Confident Of Euro Progress
Michael Carrick has no doubt Manchester United have the players to get through their tricky Champions League mission in Portugal next week.
United tackle FC Porto in the second leg of their quarter-final knowing they will probably need to become the first English side to beat the Portuguese champions on their own soil to reach the last four for the third successive year.
A high-scoring draw would be enough but unless an early goal opens the game out completely, which admittedly it did at Old Trafford last Tuesday, victory is the Red Devils most obvious route into the semi-finals.
On the evidence of last week's encounter it is a tall order for Sir Alex Ferguson's men.
Not since that famous semi-final triumph over Juventus in 1999 have United won a two-legged game after failing to win the first game on home soil.
Three years after that, following a similar 2-2 scoreline against Bayer Leverkusen at Old Trafford, United could only manage a 1-1 draw in the second game, leaving Ferguson to rue missing out on a final against Real
Madrid in Glasgow due to the away goals rule.
But Carrick knows they have been in enough scrapes in the past to feel confident about getting through this one.
"If we play well we can exploit the best of teams," he said.
"We have the players to do it and we are set up as a team to do it.
"As long as we play to our potential I am sure we will cause them problems."
Playing to their potential has been a problem for United recently.
Ferguson's medical staff will be trying desperately hard to get Rio Ferdinand and Dimitar Berbatov fit to provide some added experience.
But United have plenty of that anyway, with Wayne Rooney in particularly good form, both for England and against Porto, where he scored one of his side's goals in the 2-2 draw and created the other.
"Wayne had a good two weeks with England," observed Carrick.
"He was on fire there and he has carried it on.
"His goals and contribution are going to be massive from now until the end of the season.
"You want your big players to perform in the big games and I am sure they will."
Although Porto have won only five of the 11 matches they have played against English opposition on home soil, including defeats of United in 1977 and, under Jose Mourinho, in 2004, the other six have all ended in draws.
They still look pretty decent at holding out in front of their own fans judging by the goalless stalemate against Atletico Madrid in the last round, which took Porto into the quarter-finals, having achieved the same scoreline against the Spanish outfit that they did against United.
The Red Devils do have four days' preparation this time, as opposed to the 48 hours they had last week.
And they also have the knowledge that, Bayern Munich apart, away teams seem to have set a trend of doing rather well.
"It is strange," said Carrick.
"From year to year sometimes the home teams dominate, sometimes the away teams do it.
"It shows how different and difficult the competition can be.
"The away teams have done all right this time. Hopefully that carries on until next week."
