Chris Smalling has warned his Manchester United teammates to man up for a huge week.
The Red Devils go to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday night before taking on noisy neighbours City in a Premier League Manchester derby this Sunday.
Ahead of the 10 pm kickoff in Turin, the experienced Smalling says that they were in awe of the Italian giants when they lost 1-0 at Old Trafford two weeks ago.
But since then, United have built some momentum after winning their previous two matches.
And Smalling has urged them to build on that, saying: “Against Juventus, we started a little in awe, we were off the pace and we weren’t really on the front foot.
DANGER MAN: Juve's Cristiano Ronaldo. Photo: GIANNI NUCCI/EPA
“I think in the second half we showed that we could give them a game, that we could create chances.
“I think we can take that second-half performance to Turin, we’ll be more on the front foot and you’ll see a better performance than you did in the first half.”
Talking about the next few days as well, the centre back adds: “We know we’re going into a very tough week now, but if we can come out with some good results, it will be seen as a good month considering it was probably one of our toughest months.
“That would galvanise us and knowing that we’ve had some big games this month and that we’ve gone toe to toe and picked up good results.”
Other Champions League fixtures
CSKA Moscow v Roma (7.55pm)
Valencia v Young Boys (7.55pm)
Viktoria Plzen v Real Madrid (10 pm)
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk (10 pm)
Lyon v TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (10 pm)
Benfica v Ajax (10pm)
Bayern Munich v AEK Athens (10 pm)