Lou Macari gets carried away

Are you optimistic? Resigned? Slightly nauseated? Confused by this introduction because you've somehow managed to forget that Manchester United are playing Bayern Munich tonight, and now moving from confusion to panic because you have to cancel the plans you've just made and you're going to look like a fool? Hopefully not that last one.

To kill the time between now and then, Manchester United Football Club's Official Website Partner, Man Utd Dot Com have been speaking to three former United players about their cunning plans for getting past the German champions this evening. Mickey Thomas, for example, thinks that it will difficult, but that Danny Welbeck's "energetic game" will allow United to play on the break.

Alex Stepney, meanwhile, names David de Gea as "one of our key players, without doubt. He has pulled off some unbelievable saves on many occasions this season.... Both goalkeepers could be vitally important for their teams because we could be talking about fine margins that decide this tie." What a wonderful thing the goalkeepers' union is. It transcends club rivalries, national enmities, and the passage of time. Theirs is a fraternity bound together by the shared knowledge that at any moment, everything could be all their fault.

And then we come to Lou Macari. He identifies the defence as the key area, and also finds time to mention Welbeck. He also, slightly more ambitiously, says the following:

Bayern Munich are a top team and, considering our season so far, I believe that winning would be our greatest-ever achievement in European football.

Big shout, Lou. Big shout.