Benfica face a stern test at home against a United side who have burst out of the blocks in their Premier League title defence with a 100 percent record and lead the table on goal difference.
Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will be looking to translate his rampant domestic form into more goals. The England forward has scored back-to-back hat-tricks in Premier League games, the latest coming in Saturday’s 5-0 thumping of Bolton Wanderers.
Meanwhile, United said later on Tuesday that defender Rio Ferdinand will miss the opening match.
Man City debut
Manchester City begin their campaign as the debutants no one wants to face thanks to a dazzling start to their domestic season and a squad bursting with expensive talent.
Goals have flowed for City this season as easily as hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent and bookmakers have installed Roberto Mancini’s men among the favourites for European glory before their Group A opener at home to Napoli on Wednesday.
The group’s heavyweights, in terms of seedings in the draw, are Bayern Munich and Villarreal but the German club’s winger Franck Ribery summed up the issue by holding his head in his hands when hearing that the world’s richest club were in his group.
Real Madrid will begin their campaign without injury-prone Kaka, who has failed to recover from a bruised heel and was left out of the squad on Tuesday for their opener at Dinamo Zagreb.
The Brazilian playmaker has been working apart from the rest of the group since Saturday, when he came on as a substitute in Real's 4-2 home win over Getafe in La Liga.
