Man Utd return to the Champions League tomorrow and Michael Carrick is confident they can leave a mark on the competition.
Manchester United train ahead of their Champions League return
Manchester United train ahead of their Champions League return
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Nothing sums up Manchester United's recent Champions League record like the fact that Bruno Fernandes has played in just one knockout tie during his six-and-a-half years at Old Trafford.
United have made just two quarter-finals since they last reached the final in 2011, a game in which Carrick played, and their only knockout since Fernandes arrived in January 2020 was the last-16 defeat to Atletico Madrid in 2021/22.
They kick off their latest campaign in the Champions League against Sabah FK on Thursday and it will be their first game in the competition since defeat to Bayern Munich in December 2023, which ended a miserable group stage campaign.
They finished bottom of a group that also included FC Copenhagen and Galatasaray and conceded 15 goals along the way, but last season's third-place finish, engineered by a revival under Carrick, has them dining at Europe's top table once again.
This time, the challenge is to show they can go deep in the competition. Fernandes' record is deserving of that, and with contract negotiations with the captain underway and the Portuguese one of 30 players nominated for the Ballon d'Or this week, it is also essential that the club proves to its best players that it can compete on this stage.
"Well, we certainly can achieve it, we're capable of achieving it," said Carrick. "It's up to us to then take the step of doing that. I think you saying that as well shows the steps that we're trying to make from previous years of not being in the later stages of the competition.
"I think we've got to be humble enough and realistic enough to know where we're coming from and where we want to get to. That, like you say, Bruno's only played in that one. It's part of us to keep pushing the standards and to be the best we can possibly be.
"We want to be there as quickly as possible, as everybody does, but again, it's understanding the steps that need to be put in place to be able to do that.
"We're capable of some really, really good things, and especially on our day, we feel that we can go up against anybody and come out on top.
"It's up to us to bring that over a consistent period and consistency through games. In the end, that gets you the results and hopefully puts us in those stages that you're talking about."
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