Giggs guns for Stuttgart

Throughout this season's UEFA Champions League campaign, Manchester United FC and Wales winger Ryan Giggs will be writing a regular diary piece for uefa.com. In his second instalment, he looks forward to travelling to VfB Stuttgart and salutes the brilliance of Ruud van Nistelrooij.

By Ryan Giggs

There's no better preparation for a tough away game in Europe than a solid win in the Premiership and that's exactly what we got at Leicester City FC on Saturday. After our stalemate against Arsenal FC at Old Trafford the previous weekend, it was important to get back into the groove. At this level, there is always pressure but that pressure never feels as intense when you're winning.

Hat-trick hero
Ruud van Nistelrooij was on fire again with a hat-trick against Leicester and I'm sure the Stuttgart defenders won't be relishing the prospect of marking him. Ruud had gone two matches before Saturday without scoring, which is unusual for him, and it was obvious what it meant to him to be back among the goals.

'A special player'
I'm not saying Ruud goes into a sulk when he draws a blank for a couple of matches but, put it this way, he's definitely a happier camper when he does score. That's what makes him such a special player, that persistent hunger to score in every single game whether he's got a hat-trick the match before or hasn't scored for weeks, and it lifts the whole team when he's on form.

No illusions
We know we will all have to be on form on Wednesday, however, and we're under no illusions about the strength of the Stuttgart side. Having lost at Ibrox to Rangers FC a fortnight ago, they will be desperate to get some points on the board and that makes them doubly dangerous. Home advantage in the Champions League is a precious commodity and Stuttgart know they have to make the most of it.

German history
We haven't got a great record against German sides, especially in Germany. Everybody remembers us beating FC Bayern München in the final in Barcelona in 1999 but we've only won once in Germany in six attempts in the Champions League - against Bayer 04 Leverkusen last season - which shows how difficult it is to go there and take all three points.

Good call
On the international front, I'd like to comment on the recent UEFA decision not to seed the teams who will be involved in the play-offs for UEFA EURO 2004™. I think a lot of people were shocked at the suggestion that there would be seeding because it all seemed to come out of the blue and for me common sense has prevailed.

Welsh hope
The play-offs look likely for Wales and if that's the case, we want the best chance possible of seeing it through and qualifying for the finals. If there had been seedings there's little doubt we would have been facing a tougher task. We're not running scared of anyone but any sane player or manager would rather have a team like Iceland or Slovenia standing in their way to the finals than Holland or England.

Luck of the draw
If the seeding suggestion had become reality Wales would not have been one of the top seeds despite our good form over the last 12 to 18 months and we would have pulled out one of the bigger countries. That may still happen but it's only fair that the decision is down to luck rather than a system that no one knew about when the qualifying campaign kicked off.