Sir Alex Ferguson has urged his players to go out and seize their place in history, is there a feeling in the United camp that it is their destiny to win tonight?

Ferguson has actively discouraged talk of it being this team's destiny to win. There have been quotes that have appeared with him saying "it could be our destiny", but he was also quite careful to say that sometimes it isn't. He is of the belief that destiny is something you talk about after you win the Champions League, not before. Ferguson is very keen that his players go out and shape their own destiny.

Ferguson has spent a lot of this season telling us that this is the best squad he has assembled in 23 years at the club, but he has also conceded that they must beat Barcelona if they want to be remembered as a truly great team.

This morning you wrote that United were preparing to take a defensive, safety-first approach tonight . Will they be happy to allow Barcelona to dominate possession?

It is inevitable that Barcelona will have most of the possession simply because of the way they play. I am not saying United will be happy for that to happen, but they will not be overly concerned as long as Barcelona have got the ball in areas that can't really hurt them.

United will be fairly pragmatic about that because they believe they will be more dangerous on the counter attack because of their pace.

It will be interesting to see how many players Barcelona themselves are willing to commit forward. I would think they will play with five fairly defensive players and five extremely attacking players but they are not going to want to play into United's hands by leaving enormous gaps every time they pour forward.

So do you expect it to be quite cagey, rather than the feast of attacking football some are predicting?

With two extremely gifted and talented teams anything is possible. Josep Guardiola has said that Barcelona only know how to play one way, but what we can safely say about United is that they can play in many different ways and will play the way that gets them the result they need.

United are absolutely confident that they can dig in and be defensive when they need to be just as they know they can blow teams away. So I expect them to do whatever it takes to win the game.

Much has been made of Messi and Ronaldo deciding tonight's match, but could someone else have a greater influence?

People are seeing too much in the Ronaldo v Messi debate. We know Messi is a wonderful player to watch in full flow but he hasn't yet produced a big performance in one of the big games in the Champions League. He didn't do an awful lot against Chelsea and I think to focus on these two is to ignore the fact that there are some extremely talented players on both sides.

United will be more confident of having the players to stop Messi, than Barcelona will of stoping Ronaldo.

Ferguson has been known to spring a surprise or two on the big occasion, can you see that happening tonight?

The team we have predicted today is the one that has been seeping out of the United camp over the past week, with the thought being that there was no way Ferguson would change his mind. I am reasonably confident that it is the team we will see take the field with Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov on the bench.

As for surprises, there was word last night that we may see Danny Welbeck, Federico Macheda or Darron Gibson on the bench. Gibson might be the only other midfielder that could give them a physical presence if Michael Carrick was injured.

How do you see the match going?

United will win. Even if Barcelona did have their strongest defence available United would feel they would be able to exploit it. Now Barcelona are missing three of their first-choice back four, and with Yaya Toure coming into defence alongside Gerard Pique, who United were happy to sell last summer, then you have to fear for them. It's asking a lot of that defence to keep United out. United will score and they could even keep a clean sheet.