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O'Shea: United are in great nick

Fri 04 Apr, 10:15 AM


John O'Shea insists Manchester United can head back into Premier League action at Middlesbrough bursting with pride after their Roma show.United eased past Roma 2-0 in Italy to put themselves in pole position for a place in the Champions League semi-finals and give them a major boost ahead of the crucial clash against Gareth Southgate's men.

O'Shea, who replaced injury victim Nemanja Vidic after 33 minutes, said: "We can be very proud of the performance because Roma are a very good team.

"I thought it was very impressive. To come away in the Champions League at any stage, but especially in the quarter finals, Roma were so familiar to us as well.

"When the back four and Edwin (van der Sar) are playing so well and all the experience they have, it is easy to slot in to the confidence of the team.

"We have been keeping clean sheets all season and we just had to do that again."

O'Shea is expected to figure from the start in the north-east with Vidic ruled out for three weeks. Nani remains a doubt after missing the trip to Italy with a thigh strain.

Mikael Silvestre should figure after shaking off a knee injury while Gary Neville is edging closer to full fitness. Darren Fletcher (knee) and Louis Saha (hamstring) are both still out.

But O'Shea went on to warn his United team-mates not to take their first-leg result for granted with Roma expected to come to Old Trafford and throw everything at the United defence.

O'Shea added: "The game is not over yet. Roma will be hurting having lost at home.

"They have great players to come back in as well so we have to be very focused. They have good players and they can hurt you at any moment in the game. We have to be very careful of that.

"It is all about the confidence we have in the team and the ability we have on the counter attack. We know we have been very sound and keeping clean sheets.

"The pace we have on the counter is frightening teams and that has been the difference away from home this season."

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