Ferguson has moved to clear the air between United and Lyon after Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas complained that speculation linking the French club's striker Karim Benzema, who scored in the first leg, with a move to Old Trafford was "destabilising".

"I think (Aulas) is being a little bit mischievous. We have never said that we are interested in Benzema. I haven't said it yet, and I don't say we are interested now," Ferguson said.

Ligue 1 leaders Lyon go into the game in good heart after a 1-0 win at Lille on Saturday.

"Just before the first leg, we lost at Le Mans and it was a bad omen. This time we won, we recovered our spirit and it's a good omen particularly as the first leg showed that we could compete with United," said Lyon defender Anthony Reveillere.

Coach Alain Perrin has to decide whether to hand central defender Cris another start after he played his first league game since August on Saturday after recovering from a knee ligament injury.

The Brazilian international is vying with Jean-Alain Boumsong for a starting place.

Probable teams:

Manchester United: 1-Edwin van der Sar; 6-Wes Brown, 5-Rio Ferdinand, 15-Nemanja Vidic, 3-Patrice Evra; 18-Paul Scholes, 4-Owen Hargreaves, 8-Anderson; 7-Cristiano Ronaldo, 10-Wayne Rooney, 11-Ryan Giggs.

Olympique Lyon: 1-Gregory Coupet; 2-Francois Clerc, 3-Cris or 32-Jean-Alain Boumsong, 29-Sebastien Squillaci, 11-Fabio Grosso; 18-Hatem Ben Arfa, 6-Kim Kallstrom, 28-Jeremy Toulalan, 8-Juninho, 14-Sidney Govou, 10-Karim Benzema.

(Agencies via China Daily March 3, 2008)