With the riches and glamour of the champions league only two legs of the European cup away, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had to fight back his own sense of anticipation to warn against complacency against Turkish champions Galatasaray. Ferguson knew that the greatest danger to his United side was themselves.
Alex Ferguson said ‘’ People think we’ve only got,to turn up to beat them because they are Turkish but you can’t take these sides for granted. The challenge is absolutely mouth-watering,” he admitted. “It’s all I’ve wanted since I came here the thought of United meeting the likes of AC Milan and the Barcelona. I always feel 2-0 at home is the target in Europe,” he said. “I think this team can go anywhere if they’ve got that. You can dream about scoring five, but the immediate target is a goal in each half.”
The Turkish media had already begun the psychological warfare by claiming that the match referee, Denmark’s Peter Mikkelsen, is a business partner of Peter Schmeichel, United’s Danish international goalkeeper. Ferguson dismissed this out of hand, saying:
“In fact. Schmeichel doesn’t get on with him particularly well. He had a few run-ins with him when he was at Brondby.”
