Manchester United: Friendly UEFA Champions League Schedule Ensures Progress

3-3?

At home against FC Basel?

Could Manchester United actually manage to not win their predictably easy UEFA Champions League group?

For a split second, I actually thought so.

Then I remembered that in addition to the overachieving Swiss club, United's Group B opponents include wannabe Portuguese champions Benfica and the utterly anonymous Otelul Galati.

While Benfica and Basel beat each other up during the next two Group B match days, United will collect six easy points from two contests against the reigning Romanian champions.

With Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic returning to action for manager Sir Alex Ferguson, United will eventually overpower Basel and Benfica in their final two group fixtures.

I'll stop short of accusing UEFA of conspiring to move Man U deep into the Champions League, but I must admit Europe's soccer governing body has been quite kind to my Red Devils.

For instance, United began their 2010-2011 Champions League campaign in a group with Turkish minnows Bursaspor, expectedly underwhelming Scottish Champions Rangers and a Valencia side, which had just lost top attackers David Villa and David Silva.

Narrowly advancing past a stubborn Marseille side in the round-of-16, United would then overwhelm a defeated Chelsea side and gallop past overmatched Bundesliga club FC Schalke.

Finally meeting another football superpower in Barcelona's "masterclass," the United players looked lost.  While Rooney did manage a fortuitous goal and Vidic executed some fantastic tackles, United was clearly second best.

As you certainly recall, Fergie's Red Devils suffered the same fate in 2009 when they fell 2-0 to the Catalan giants.

Interestingly, their 2008-2009 Champions League Campaign followed almost identical trajectory as the 2010-2011 Campaign.

The Reds' group opponents included Villareal instead of Valencia, Celtic instead of Rangers and random Norse side Aalborg BK instead of Bursaspor as the group whipping boy (Aalborg did, however, manage six points and finished ahead of Celtic).

After initially drawing a decent opponent in eventual Serie A champions Inter Milan, United moved into a bracket where they would play Portuguese giants FC Porto and an Arsenal side, which Fergie has historically dominated.

While Porto and Arsenal are still top-class opponents, Man U managed to dodge the much more challenging bracket featuring high-performing Liverpool, a Chelsea side that was less than a minute away from qualifying for a second consecutive final, and of course—the eventual champions Barcelona.

The Reds' 2007-2008 Champions League campaign wasn't much different.

With the four English teams arguably the four best teams in the tournament that year, United was extremely fortunate to be drawn into a quarterfinal bracket where they would play AS Roma and a pre-masterclass Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool duked it out in the other bracket.  Chelsea won the bracket but would lose to United on penalties in the final.  However, I still have my doubts about the 2008 European Champion squad. 

Could Fergie have actually defeated either Chelsea or Liverpool across two legs?

Fortunately for us United fans, the answer doesn't matter.  Historical records will always indicate that we advanced to the final and emerged victors in an extraordinarily thrilling contest.

Assuming UEFA doesn't break precedent and draw us against the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid or a retooled Bayern Munich side, we ought to be just fine.