Celtic in need of home help

Humbled at Old Trafford on Matchday 3, Celtic FC must seek to produce another night of heroics on home soil when Manchester United FC come to town for the second instalment of the teams' back-to-back meetings.

• Gordon Strachan's Scottish champions claimed a memorable 1-0 victory when United made their maiden visit to Celtic Park two years ago – a result that helped the Glasgow side reach the UEFA Champions League first knockout round for the first time.

• Then, however, they went into the match with the confidence gained from having pushed United all the way in an earlier 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford. This time, by contrast, Celtic returned north from Manchester a well-beaten side after going down 3-0 to goals from Dimitar Berbatov (30, 51) and Wayne Rooney (76) on Matchday 3.

• Rather than contemplating qualification, therefore, they will enter the contest with the more modest ambition of just keeping their hopes alive having taken only one point from three matches so far. Level with Aalborg BK at the foot of Group E, Celtic will be eliminated if they lose and Villarreal CF take a point or more at AaB.

• There are no such worries for reigning European and English champions United, who can secure a last-16 berth if they win in Sir Alex Ferguson's home city and AaB fail to defeat Villarreal in Denmark. They could also qualify with a draw should AaB lose.

• United will travel full of confidence given their unbeaten away record in the competition now stretches back seven matches. So far in Group E, they have drawn 0-0 with Villarreal then defeated AaB 3-0 in Denmark prior to beating Celtic.

• As if to underline the sides' contrasting fortunes, Celtic are the only team in the group stage still to score a goal while United, together with Chelsea FC, are one of only two outfits yet to concede.

• Celtic can at least draw encouragement from their formidable home record in the competition. They have lost just one of their last eleven UEFA Champions League games in Glasgow's east end – a 3-2 defeat by FC Barcelona in last season's first knockout round. Indeed Barcelona, who also won 3-1 at Celtic Park in 2004/05, are the only visiting team to have beaten the Bhoys on their own turf, where 18 previous matches have yielded 12 wins and four draws.

• One of those victories was the aforementioned 1-0 success against United on 21 November 2006. The Celtic heroes that night were Shunsuke Nakamura, scorer of the only goal with an 81st-minute free-kick, and Artur Boruc, who saved a late Louis Saha spot-kick.

• The full lineups for the match were:
Celtic: Artur Boruc, Paul Telfer, Dianbobo Balde, Stephen McManus, Lee Naylor, Thomas Gravesen, Neil Lennon, Evander Sno (Jiří Jarošík), Shunsuke Nakamura (Kenny Miller), Maciej Żurawski (Shaun Maloney), Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.
Man United: Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidić, Gabriel Heinze (Patrice Evra), Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Carrick (John O'Shea), Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha.

• Celtic have a strong home record against English oppositon, having recorded four wins, two draws and one defeat in seven previous matches.

• The only visiting team to have returned south of the border with a victory were Nottingham Forest FC, 2-1 winners at Celtic Park in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup third round.

• United's defeat at Celtic Park in November 2006 was their only reverse in seven matches against Scottish opponents.

• In their two other previous visits to Scotland they defeated Dundee United 3-2 in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup third round, securing a 5-4 aggregate success, and won 1-0 at Rangers FC in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage, Phil Neville the scorer.

• During his playing days, Sir Alex played for Celtic's arch-rivals Rangers FC between 1967 and 1969.

• Sir Alex had mixed fortunes in Anglo-Scottish contests when managing in Scotland with Aberdeen FC. His Aberdeen side lost 5-0 on aggregate to Liverpool in the 1980/81 European Champion Clubs' Cup second round. However, the next season they eliminated holders Ipswich Town FC in the UEFA Cup first round with a 4-2 aggregate win.

• Celtic manager Strachan, who was a scorer in that UEFA Cup win against Ipswich, played under Sir Alex at Aberdeen and Manchester United and also with Scotland's 1986 FIFA World Cup team.

• United midfielder Darren Fletcher captained the Scotland national team in their last competitive fixture and counts Celtic's Gary Caldwell, Stephen McManus, Scott Brown, Paul Hartley, Shaun Maloney and Barry Robson among his international team-mates.

• Celtic forward Aiden McGeady has played alongside United defender John O'Shea for the Republic of Ireland.