“We need 10 points to get through,” said Ferguson, “It doesn’t matter where we get them.”United will start marginal favourites, especially as Rangers’ form has dipped. Ferguson has since become one of the game’s great managers and McLeish is attempting to emulate him. A treble in his first season as Rangers manager was a good start.McLeish is at pains to point out that, while Ferguson has inevitably been an influence on his management style, he has not consciously modelled himself on his fellow Glaswegian – quickly realising he had to be his own man. “The timing’s not the best but we chose it months ago and we’re sticking with it,” he said.United were the last English team to defeat a Scottish one in European competition, but it was back in 1984, in a Uefa Cup tie against Dundee United.Ferguson was still manager at Aberdeen then, McLeish his centre-back. He scored on his last match against them, for Rovers at Old Trafford in April. A repeat tonight would cap a memorable week, his wife having given birth to their second son on Saturday The name: Rio.

“I hope the building of our training ground changes that but young Scots have to be better than the standard currently in my team.” That standard is not what it was. With Rangers more than £60m in debt McLeish’s summer spending was £600,000, all of it on Capucho, a fitful Portuguese past his best. The other four signings were all free transfers.These included Henning Berg who is experiencing a new lease since moving north from Blackburn. The Norwegian is relishing the tie as much as anyone having made more than 100 appearances for United, including the 1999 European Cup win. It is a far cry from the Aberdeen of Ferguson and McLeish which won the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1983.

That was an entirely native XI, the last such team to win a European trophy.”It’s a shame,” admitted McLeish. In United’s case that includes Ferguson’s lingering resentment at the way he was forced out of Ibrox as a player.While Rangers will be regarded as the standard bearers of Scottish football, the irony is the only Scot with a chance of starting is United’s Darren Fletcher. Both managers said they hoped their teams had the experience to handle the occasion but even the senior players will have experienced few occasions like it. At Ibrox tonight he will be able to appreciate the quality of his work at close hand as McLeish, now manager of Rangers, attempts to inflict defeat on his one-time mentor.It is Ferguson’s first competitive match in Scotland since crossing the border in 1986 and it could hardly be bigger. For some the added burden of carrying their manager’s baggage on to the pitch may prove a responsibility too far. This is only the fourth occasion that the champions of England and Scotland have met in competition and the first time United and Rangers, the biggest clubs within their respective countries, have done so. The last time United played at Ibrox, in a 1994 friendly, Eric Cantona was sent off and Ferguson berated the Rangers’ support for the hostility of the reception they had given the Frenchman.It will be much fiercer tonight, especially for Roy Keane, a Celtic fan.