The last 16 first-leg clash at the San Siro brings the charismatic Portuguese face-to-face with United’s Alex Ferguson for the first time since he left Chelsea in 2007. Mourinho has acknowledged he may seem “mad” for wanting to play the Premier League leaders, who had not conceded a league goal in 14 matches before Saturday’s 2-1 win over Blackburn.

However, statistics show Mourinho has got the better of Ferguson most of the time — winning six, drawing five and losing one of their 12 meetings. His Porto side knocked United out on their way to winning the Champions League in 2004 and his Chelsea team beat United to the English Premier League title in 2005 and 2006.

United hit back by taking the league in 2007 but Mourinho defeated them in the FA Cup final that year.

“I don’t want my players to go on the pitch under pressure. I want them to play with pleasure,” Mourinho said. “I’ve known all about Manchester United since 2004. They’re the best team in the world, they play on the counter-attack and we’ll have to be very intelligent in how we deal with this.”

Dejan Stankovic was rested for the first half of Saturday’s 2-1 win at Bologna but is expected to start on Tuesday just behind the powerful front two of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Adriano. Midfielder Patrick Vieira is a doubtful starter having only just recovered from injury while Mourinho has issues in defence with Walter Samuel and Cristian Chivu not fully fit.

United are without defender Nemanja Vidic, who is suspended after being sent off in their Club World Cup final win in December. Fellow centre-back Jonny Evans limped off against Blackburn with an ankle injury while Wes Brown and Gary Neville have already been ruled out of the trip to the San Siro.

ARSENAL LOOKING FOR GOALS

Arsenal need to shrug off domestic league woes and rediscover their scoring form if they are to knock AS Roma out of the Champions League.

Ahead of their match against Roma, Wenger is weighed down by injury problems and his team’s failure to score goals in the Premier League. “In the first part of the season we conceded too many goals and scored high,” Wenger said. “In the second half of the season, we do not concede anymore, but we do not score. The challenge is to find a balance between being solid defensively and good attacking.”