United and Barcelona can serve up a feast of flair at Camp Nou

Scroll down to read more

But for the purists and the fantasists, it is the road to Camp Nou that glitters this month.

Barcelona versus Manchester United in the semi-final of the Champions League. It sounds sexy just saying it.

The two most adventurous teams in European football will come face to beautiful face with more at stake than ever before.

Can this fixture live up to its remarkable promise? For once, even the protagonists are not seeking to play it down.

United midfielder Owen Hargreaves is not known for expansive statements but he said yesterday: "I've never played against Barcelona but I must have watched them on television every Sunday for the past two years and they're a fantastic team.

"You know exactly how they're going to play. They're going to try to play right through the middle of us and we're going to have to defend very well. But we will play the same as them.

"We're two very attacking sides and are going to go for it and try to create chances. There will be a lot of chances at both ends and the better side will win. We have to play our football and we'll get chances. When we attack, we're difficult for any team to handle."

United will face Frank Rijkaard's team in Spain on April 23 with the return leg at Old Trafford six days later. For many it would have been the perfect final.

Sir Alex Ferguson's men have played the most exciting domestic football in Europe this season. In Cristiano Ronaldo they have, perhaps, the world's best player.

Barcelona, meanwhile, have played poorly in La Liga this season and will be without the talismanic Brazilian Ronaldinho and Deco, both supposedly injured but also accused of disruptive indiscipline.

However, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi do not occupy their places in most people's European dream team for nothing so Ferguson will pray defenders Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic arrive in Spain in good health in just 11 days' time.

The memories are plentiful, for both clubs. Ferguson won his only European Cup in Camp Nou nine years ago and as a 19-year-old Hargreaves watched from the stands as his Bayern Munich team-mates had glory torn from their grasp.

"I was in the stadium screaming my lungs out," said Hargreaves last night. "Afterwards I was in shock. We all were."

United and Barcelona have not met for nine years.

In United's 1998-99 campaign, the teams played out two 3-3 draws in the group stage, while four years earlier Ferguson had been chastened by a 4-0 thrashing in Spain.

"I left Peter Schmeichel out that night," laughed Ferguson this week. "So obviously that worked out well for me!"

Such history counts for nothing on the field, of course, but it adds greatly to the general lustre of a tie that will be watched by 160,000 fans over the course of the two games. With the second leg taking place at Old Trafford, United will perhaps start as slight favourites.

A domestic tussle with Chelsea for the Barclays Premier League will not aid their preparations, although Barca are struggling to reduce a seven-point deficit on Spanish leaders Real Madrid, having won only one of their past six League games. Ferguson may have reason to fear a repeat of last season when an AC Milan team, long since left behind in Serie A, were able to focus solely on a semi-final with United that — in truth — they won comfortably.

Ferguson said last night: "We have learned from that and I think we are in better physical shape this season.

"The energy levels in the team were gone by the time we got to that tie last season and there was nothing we could do. The squad was not deep enough to cope. This season we have much more energy and I just pray that everybody will be fit."

For their part, Barcelona will perhaps not miss Ronaldinho too much. His contribution this season has been negligible. But they will sweat on the fitness of their Argentinian safebreaker Messi and will fret about the defensive absence of the suspended captain Carles Puyol.

He is one of the best man-markers in Europe and if anybody could look after Ronaldo in Catalonia, it would be the dogged little Spain star.

Hargreaves added: "We can cope this season. I know we can. We haven't lost in the Champions League this season. We're the only team who can say that. Plus, we've won 11 games in a row at home. So far, so good.

"It's going to be two fabulous games against Barcelona and after that we'll see what happens. We've got a good rhythm, everyone's contributing and we're playing well.

"Barcelona are not in the best form at the moment but when you look at their squad it's among the best in the world. They are going to be a threat, that's for sure. But we've been playing exceptionally well for the past couple of months.

"We've been very consistent and put ourselves in a good position. We're in the home stretch and this is where it counts."

Hargreaves has won the Champions League before, with Bayern in 2001. Such is the quality available to Ferguson this season, he may not even be in the team for the semi-final.

There will be only 11 lucky ones. And millions watching who will envy them like never before.