Champions League 2011: Manchester United's Run to Title Won't Be Stopped Soon

Manchester United begins their quest to win the UEFA Champions League title. Many matches stand between now and then, but if they don't come out of their group incredibly strong, they have only themselves to blame.

If you don't believe me, that's fine, but check out what striker Javier Hernandez said in this interview:

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"It’s a good draw for us but we can’t think it’s easy—we have to respect the other teams,"

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That's true. You never want to disrespect an opponent or think that the win will be easy, but that comes from the perspective of a player. From the outside looking in, this is a strong way for Manchester United to get off to a strong start.

Coming off a second place finish has to give the Red Devils a sense of urgency to get back and close the deal this time. Last year, they were tied 1-1 with Barcelona at halftime but fell victim to second half goals by Lionel Messi and David Villa to lose 3-1.

In the 2010-2011 Champions League group stage, the Red Devils were 4-0-2. Honestly, with two matches against Benfica, Basel and Oţelul Galaţi, it's hard to not see them doing at least that well this time around.

From that point on, who knows? Anything can obviously happen as the weaker competition is eliminated.

Right now, Manchester United is a club that has a strong draw and is playing incredibly well right now. They're 4-0 in Premier League play and have won their last two matches by 13-2. There is really no reason to expect that that success won't translate to the Champions League.

Will they run through their group at that rate? Probably not, but that doesn't really matter.

But if you’re expecting them to be facing adversity in the way of losses, you are likely going to be disappointed. In six matches, five wins is not unlikely.

Of course, you do need to play the matches. That’s a common theme across sports. The teams can't win games on paper.

If they’re not going to at least get back to the finals, we probably won’t know it for a long time.