United switch focus to securing top spot

Manchester United FC will look to cement their position at the top of Group B when they welcome Beşiktaş JK to Old Trafford on Matchday 5.

• The English champions booked their place in the last 16 when they fought back to draw 3-3 with PFC CSKA Moskva last time out and, with a three-point lead over VfL Wolfsburg, they can take another step towards top spot by beating Beşiktaş.

• The visitors' UEFA Champions League hopes ended with their Matchday 4 home defeat by Wolfsburg but they could yet overturn the three-point deficit on third-placed CSKA and claim a UEFA Europa League berth.

• Another motivating factor for Beşiktaş is the memory of their last visit to England's north-west when they suffered a 8-0 defeat at Liverpool FC – their biggest European loss and a UEFA Champions League record.

Previous meeting
• Paul Scholes scored the only goal 13 minutes from time when the clubs met for the first time in Istanbul on 15 September.

Match background
• It would be unwise for anybody to leave Old Trafford early given United's remarkable habit of scoring late in this season's competition. Scholes's winner at Beşiktaş set the tone, with United hitting five of their seven goals so far in the final 13 minutes.

• United's late comeback against CSKA extended their unbeaten home record in the UEFA Champions League to 23 matches.

• Wayne Rooney will have fond memories of United's last visit from a Turkish club – he hit a debut hat-trick in a 6-2 victory against Fenerbahçe SK in a group-stage fixture on 28 September 2004. Beşiktaş custodian Rüştü Reçber was in the Fenerbahçe goal that night.

• Beşiktaş have lost five and drawn two of the seven away matches they have played since they last won on their travels in the UEFA Champions League, a 2-0 success at United's Premier League rivals Chelsea FC in October 2003.

Team ties
• Dimitar Berbatov scored for former club Tottenham Hotspur FC in a 2-0 win at Beşiktaş in the UEFA Cup group stage in October 2006.

• United's Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Michael Owen, Rooney and Scholes were in the England team that ran out 2-0 winners against a Turkey side featuring Nihat Kahveci and Rüştü in a UEFA EURO 2004™ qualifier in Sunderland in April 2003.

• Ryan Giggs and Neville were part of the United side who missed out on the 1993/94 UEFA Champions League group stage after an away-goals defeat by Istanbul outfit Galatasaray AŞ in the second round – United drew 3-3 at Old Trafford, then 0-0 in Istanbul.

• Bobô, Serdar Özkan, İbrahim Toraman and İbrahim Üzülmez were all in the Beşiktaş starting lineup for the club's 8-0 defeat at Anfield on 6 November 2007.

• It was not the first heavy defeat Üzülmez had suffered on English soil – he was in the Beşiktaş side that lost 6-0 at Leeds United AFC in the 2000/01 group stage, together with Nihat, then in his first spell at the club. Last season Nihat was in the Villarreal CF team beaten 3-0 at Arsenal FC in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.

• Beşiktaş coach Mustafa Denizli has his own unhappy memories of England – he was in charge of the Turkey side beaten 8-0 by the national team at Wembley Stadium in a UEFA European Championship qualifier in October 1987.

• Beşiktaş's Italian defender Matteo Ferrari spent 2005/06 in England with Everton FC but did not play against United.