Injury-Hit United Aim To End Mourinho Jinx

When Manchester United met Porto in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions' League in the 2003-04 season, Jose Mourinho was relatively unknown outside of his native Portugal. His side had defeated Celtic in the UEFA Cup Final in 2003 but the two games against Sir Alex Ferguson's men were to put 'The Special One' on the map.

A narrow 2-1 win in Portugal was followed by the controversial 1-1 draw at Old Trafford; famous for the wrongly disallowed goal from Paul Scholes, Costinha's late equaliser to clinch the tie and, above all, Mourinho striding down the Old Trafford touchline, arms aloft in the pose of a winner.

It would not be the last time he would get the better of Ferguson.

The following season, Mourinho had joined Chelsea and in his first match in charge, masterminded another narrow win over his newly-established adversary. It was a trend that was to continue over the next three seasons as the two clubs clashed in the Barclay's Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup.

Mourinho currently leads the head-to-head battle by a convincing 6 wins to 1; with Ferguson's only triumph over the Portuguese a 1-0 league win in November 2005.

It is unclear as to whether the record between the two managers will have an adverse psychological effect on the United players but even if it proves to be mere speculation, the defending Champions will go into the game with other problems, namely the availability of their defenders.

With Nemanja Vidic suspended, Jonny Evans was expected to fill in in the capable way he has done all season. However, the young centre-back picked up an injury against Blackburn on Saturday and may not recover in time.

If Evans is unavailable, Ferguson will hope that John O'Shea's sore heel recovers; or he could be forced to play an unproven youngster, such as James Chester, or opt to play one of his senior players out of position.

With Inter flying high in Serie A and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in fine form, defensive worries were last thing that Ferguson would have wanted for this encounter.

One thing is for sure though: Whichever team he picks will be fired up for an epic battle to set up a classic for the return leg at Old Trafford.