Depleted United Travel to France

Manchester United travel to France this Wednesday evening to take on Marseille in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side are flying high in the Premier League, four points clear at the top and losing just once all season. However, they have struggled on the road all season picking up just three league wins from 12 fixtures.

The Red Devils are without Jonny Evans, Rio Ferdinand, Anderson, Ryan Giggs and Michael Owen for the trip across the Channel. Meaning that Chris Smalling is likely to partner Nemanja Vidic in the centre of defence at the Stade Velodrome.

Marseille are currently third in the French Ligue 1 table, just three points behind leaders Lille. They are unbeaten in their last ten league and cup games but are also likely to be without several key players for this week’s game.

Andre-Piere Gignac is definitely out for Didier Deschamp's side and there are also doubts over Mathieu Valbuena, Loic Remy and Brandao.

Despite their sketchy away record domestically United are often ruthless on the continent. And that is why the bookmakers have made them the 6/5 betting favourites to take a lead back to Old Trafford in two weeks time.

The home win is priced at odds of 13/5 and a draw is 23/10.

Having rested a number of key players for the weekend win over Crawley Town Ferguson is likely to welcome back Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney to his starting line-up. The Bulgarian is 11/2 to open the scoring while Rooney, who is likely to be high in confidence following his wonder strike against Manchester City, is 5/1.

United are just 1/4 to qualify for the quarter-finals with the second leg at home often proving to be a huge advantage in European competitions. The Premier League leaders are 8/1 fourth favourites to win the Champions League for what would be the fourth time in their history.