CHAMPIONS LEAGUE BUILD-UP: Europe's at your feet, United boss Fergie tells young stars

On that day in 1992, English football's favourite clown chose to begin his career as a Lazio player wearing a baseball hat and some plastic glasses, complete with false eyes that dangled down on springs.

The Manchester United manager was rather more understated yesterday. And his vision is clearer, perfectly focused.

"We have only won the European Cup once in my time so that tells you how difficult it is," said Ferguson ahead of tonight's quarter-final first leg at the Olympic Stadium. "It is going to be hard but we have the players who can make us successful.

"They are not afraid of challenges and there is enough youth in the team to make them ambitious and want to get there. This is probably my best squad ever. I think we can do well this time."

Tonight's meeting between two charismatic clubs is the fifth in less than a year. There are more sub-plots than in one of Ferguson's favourite JF Kennedy books.

Away from security fears, there are memories of the 7-1 drubbing handed down by United when Roma arrived at Old Trafford with a 2-1 first-leg lead at this stage of the competition 12 months ago.

There were suggestions back then — with their origins in Cristiano Ronaldo's dreadful book — that the Romans begged for mercy with the score at 4-0.

United claim not to care so much for the past. But Roma admit that they care deeply.

Their midfielder Daniele de Rossi said yesterday: "Everybody here, including myself, will never forget last season. The memory is so bad that everybody still talks about a 7-0 defeat. It was 7-1! I scored a goal! But nobody remembers that. It's just pain.

"The way that everybody remembers that game has totally coloured the judgment of these two teams. Nobody seems to remember that we won the first game here in Rome 2-1. It is things like this that we have to focus on.

"And Ronaldo? If he wrote those things then he has a bad memory. Nobody from Rome asked United to stop scoring goals.

"Maybe we should have. Maybe then they would not have scored seven . . ."

Last year in Rome, United lost Paul Scholes to a red card, lost the game 2-1 and saw their supporters take a battering by the Italian police. It was an ugly night.

Since then they have been back for a meaningless dead rubber, drawn 1-1, in this season's group stage. Tonight, with the stadium heaving at its ancient seams, the stakes are high once again.

Luciano Spalletti's team will be without their injured captain Francesco Totti and the scale of his loss is almost impossible to calculate.

Ferguson, meanwhile, will worry rather less if Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick fail fitness tests this morning.

The United manager added: "It's interesting when you play a team four or five times in one year. I wonder who remembers the most? The team who have been successful or the team who have lost.

"The only advantage we have tomorrow is that we've been here twice in the past year. The first time we came here, the first 20 minutes we found very, very difficult.

"They pressed the game very quickly against us and it took a long time to adjust to that. Those were difficulties and hopefully because we've played them four times in a year we can overcome them. But that's a big concern for me."

Ferguson was consistently complimentary about Roma yesterday. Firstly, because he likes their coach and, secondly, because he senses just how motivated Spalletti's players are already.

Having identified the Italians as an improving force, he nevertheless accepts privately that this tie represents an obstacle that should be overcome.

As demonstrated by recent league victories over Aston Villa and Liverpool, United are in great order.

If they were one of Ferguson's beloved horses, they would be edging into the stalls in perfect race condition.

Ferguson certainly wants a goal tonight. He frets about scoreless away draws in Europe and would see a 1-1 draw, and perhaps even a 2-1 defeat, as an acceptable night's work.

De Rossi, it seems, would accept the same. "They are not unbeatable," he said, with a tangible lack of conviction. "They are a great team, with a great bench.

"They have five forward players of world standing and, for me, Wayne Rooney is one of the best three players in the world. We have to be careful. But, then, so do they."

United midfielder Scholes sat next to Ferguson at yesterday's press conference. Tonight he plays his 99th Champions League game but will be refereed by a Belgian official he was accused of calling a 'poof' when United beat Sporting Lisbon two seasons ago.

Just another unique plot-line ahead of another intriguing European night.