1. Can United overcome the burden of history?
NUMEROUS STATS SUGGEST that United are unlikely to progress to the quarter-finals tonight.
It would be just the second time in their history that they have managed to overturn a first-leg deficit, while they have never been able to overcome a two-goal deficit in the competition.
Moreover, they are in clearly woeful form and need to win all their remaining games in order to avoid suffering their worst points tally ever in the Premier League era.
Olympiakos, by contrast, should be feeling buoyant. United may be able to focus solely on the Champions League now that there is nothing to play for domestically, but the same can be said of their opponents, who were confirmed as Greek champions over the weekend.
2. Will the weight of pressure affect Olympiakos?
Olympiakos are currently in relatively unfamiliar territory — they had never beaten Man United until their 2-0 win in the first leg of this tie.
The sides previously met in the 2002 group stages, with United winning 3-2 and 4-0 in the respective matches, with the latter result virtually assuring their qualification for the Champions League second round at the time.
So for Olympiakos to be 2-0 up against as eminent a club as United must feel strange for their players, particularly given that they haven’t reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League since 1999.
Will they be able to cope with the intimidating Old Trafford atmosphere? Teams better than them have caved in such circumstances in the past, but then, it’s a vastly different Man United team that they face tonight.
3. Can United take inspiration from Liverpool?
United can be inspired by Liverpool on two levels. Firstly, they need to demonstrate that they have the character to recover from their emphatic 3-0 defeat by Brendan Rodgers’ side last Sunday.
And similarly, they could do worse than emulating the Liverpool side of 2004-05 season, who also faced Olympiakos under difficult circumstances.
They were a goal down and needed to beat the Greek team by two clear goals to progress to the last 16, yet a late stunner from Steven Gerrard eventually completed an unlikely 3-1 comeback.
That season, as with the current United side, few people gave Liverpool any hope of winning the Champions League, even after their spectacular defeat of Olympiakos.
They had a poor season domestically, not even finishing in the top four, but they managed to exceed expectations in Europe, eventually winning the competition after that famous penalty-kick defeat of Milan in the final.
A United victory appears equally improbable, but the Liverpool of 2005 demonstrated that nothing is impossible, no matter how embattled or limited your squad may appear.
4. Will Van Persie and Rooney finally click?
Unlike many in the United team, neither Wayne Rooney nor Robin van Persie have had a disastrous season by any means from a personal perspective.
The Dutchman, when he hasn’t been injured, has a highly respectable goalscoring record, with 11 goals in 15 games, while Wayne Rooney has scored 11 goals in 23 games.
That said, the suspicion remains that the duo could do better, especially when it comes to forming an effective partnership in the big games.
Against Liverpool on Sunday, they were as ineffectual as any of the other United players, while in the first leg against Olympiakos, the only pass Rooney received all night from Van Persie was at the kick-off.
Individually, they are two of the best strikers in the world, but when measured against Suarez and Sturridge, surely the benchmark for all attacking partnerships currently, they have paled in comparison.
5. How do United stop Dominguez?
In the first leg, Olympiakos’ Argentine midfielder Alejandro Dominguez was easily the best player on the park.
At 32, he is a relative veteran, whose big move to Valencia ended in abject failure, as he struggled to get first-team football.
Yet despite his unremarkable background, he easily eclipsed the more highly-rated likes of Rooney and Van Persie when the sides met in Greece in the first leg. He persistently tormented David Moyes’ men with his dangerous dribbling, continually finding space between the United midfield and defence, while also scoring the all-important first goal.
One of the obvious weaknesses of United against Liverpool on Sunday was their lack of mobility in midfield, with Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini ill-equipped to deal with the powerful running and dynamism of Jordan Henderson.
Though he is not exactly a fan favourite, this time around Moyes may be tempted to start Tom Cleverley — a far more energetic midfielder than either Carrick or Fellaini — in order to ostensibly have a better chance of curbing the considerable attacking threat of Dominguez, among others.
