MIDDLESBROUGH V S. BUCHAREST

Steve McClaren's Middlesbrough side will no doubt be licking the wounds incurred when a late West Ham goal ushered them towards the exit door in their FA Cup semi-final against West Ham at Villa Park on Sunday. However, the Riverside outfit will need to fine tune themselves for another semi-final, the UEFA Cup second leg against Romanian league leaders Steaua Bucharest on Thursday evening. Boro lost no caste in defeat when going down by a goal to nil in the first leg at the Lia Manoliu stadium, and they demonstrated their ability to overturn a deficit with the Tynecastle faithful behind them when producing a minor miracle to beat Basle 4-3 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of this competition. Gareth Southgate is back in the mix in defence, which softens the blow of Chris Riggot absence through suspension, while Mark Viduka will miss the game due to a thigh strain, but the Red Lions will be buoyed by the return of Malcom Christie, who is named in a European squad for the first time since September 2004 following his injury nightmare. Steaua Bucharest are Romania's most successful club and while they are not the team they were back in the early 80s - a time when they boasted a staggering 104-game unbeaten run - they have proved in this tournament that they are a force to be reckoned with, and have proved their effectiveness away from home, particularly when beating Real Betis 3-0 in Spain in the second leg of the last round. Banel Nicolita and Daniel Orprita are they men for Steaua and, if on song, both will be a handful for Boro's defence. When push comes to shove, however, Middlesbrough should have enough in the locker to pull this one out of the fire. In all competitions, Boro have scored fifteen goals in their last five matches at the Riverside and, despite the absence of Viduka, they still have a wealth of strikers to call upon. Yakubu hasn't had a great deal of luck in front of goal of late, but he is always a danger man, and at 6/1 with Betfred, backing the African to score first looks by far the best value bet to be had (most bookies go 9/2). Much will depend on Boro's frame of mind following the FA Cup defeat, but if anything they should be even more fired up. Essentially, this match represents a chance for Middlesbrough to salvage something from the season and for McClaren to reiterate his standing as a front-runner to succeed Sven in the England top job after the World Cup.