Cape of Des-Pair

Bit of a quiet day today, most papers concentrating on the Chelsea Liverpool tie.
Words from Sir Alex on Porto, from The Telegraph:

"Porto are a very aggressive team, especially on their own ground. The introduction of Brazilian and Argentinian players into their team has given them both a flair and a toughness that is very much in evidence when they play at home," Ferguson said.

"They can have their off days, though. They lost on their own ground to Dynamo Kiev in the group stages earlier this season and were also well beaten by Arsenal at the Emirates.

"We have had mixed fortunes against them in the past. I recall, in the time of Eric Cantona, when we beat them 4-0 at Old Trafford and then drew 0-0 in Portugal. The most recent experience was not so successful, when we first came up against an emerging Jose Mourinho. They are a different proposition now, though."

And, in The Sun, Michael Carrick continues his recent trend of sounding very confident:

“You don’t consciously draw on past experience, it just develops.

“You know what to expect in certain situations and the things you didn’t do so well you try to put right this time round.”

And he doesn't look to tiredness, quite the opposite:

“It’s great to be playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday — you can’t wait for the big games to come and you just want to get out there and get the right result.

“This is the stage when you need to go out and get the job done and we’re determined to do that.

“As a team and a squad we’re getting better and becoming stronger.

“When you play in a great side it makes your job as an individual a lot easier.

“But I don’t mind who grabs the headlines — as long as we’re sitting with one or two trophies at the end of the season.”

The Mirror has some quotes from Porto's keeper, Helton:

"The pressure is on Manchester United because they are defending the Champions League title and if they don't go through it will be a major surprise.

"That could make them nervous and if we make sure we don't let United settle, play their usual style then we have a great chance of going through.

"Our stadium, our fans and the atmosphere is so important and with that behind us we can create more chances to win."

Elsewhere, there's talk of Macheda being given a new contract, from The Telegraph:

the player’s agent, Giovanni Bia, believes that Macheda will be rewarded for his efforts by a new contract in the summer that will keep him at the club until 2014.

“When he’s 18 we’ll talk again,” said Bia. “I think Manchester will ask us to sign a five-year deal and I think that would be logical because it makes no sense to lose a lad at 21. We haven’t talked about figures.”

Daniel Taylor, on The Guardian's blog, looks at the pairing of Rooney and Berbatov:

It is the one and only time Berbatov and Rooney have combined directly to score all season: the first goal in a 4–0 rout of West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford on 18 October. The strike partnership Sir Alex Ferguson put together in the belief it would be the most feared in the country has started 19 games now, with another nine matches when one or the other has come off the bench, and that is all the pair have managed to create between themselves – one measly goal against the most porous defence in England's top division.

As statistics go, it is an alarming one for Ferguson to consider as he and his players fly to Portugal this morning for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Porto tomorrow. When Ferguson signed Berbatov on transfer-deadline day last September, he had anticipated the £30.75m recruit replicating the kind of combination play with Rooney that made the Bulgarian's on-field relationship with Robbie Keane so formidable during their two seasons together at Tottenham Hotspur. Ferguson, having tried to sign Berbatov on at least three previous occasions, had no time for those who questioned whether Berbatov and Rooney might be too similar, both spending much of their time outside the opposition penalty area, both having a natural desire to roam to different areas of the pitch.

As a partnership, however, even Ferguson, a fierce protector of his own, may struggle to argue that the pair have hit it off as he had hoped. Rooney has not set up one of Berbatov's 13 goals; the Bulgarian has not been involved in 16 of Rooney's 17. To put it into context, Berbatov and Keane linked up directly for eight goals in their first season at Tottenham. If, at United, the Rooney-Berbatov partnership is often broken up by Carlos Tevez or others, it was a similar story at White Hart Lane, with Jermain Defoe and Mido challenging Berbatov and Keane.

I'm not sure he isn't trying to find problems where none exist, for in that last paragraph he does point out that Berbatov has scored 13 goals and Rooney 17. So they may not be setting each other up, but they are still scoring goals. And Berbatov leads the team with 8 assists (Rooney has 5), so even if he's not creating for Rooney, he's still creating.