Adding 40 goals in 20 cup ties this season to their formidable League tally means they will finish the season with a higher total than any Premiership side for many years. By Thursday morning it may be that few, if any of them, will look more important than the pair that Wayne Rooney scored at Old Trafford last Tuesday, giving him four in three Champions' League games after a long barren spell in Europe.

And with Cristiano Ronaldo hitting the net so frequently, both young men should collect on wagers with Ferguson concerning their number of goals this season.

The manager has made the point that compared with two seasons ago, when United could not score once in three hours against Milan, his team have grown up fast, which Rooney endorses, "When we went to Milan two years ago the likes of myself, Cristiano, Darren Fletcher, we were young lads then, boys if you like. Playing against Milan away it is difficult for anyone, coming up against the likes of [Paolo] Maldini and [Alessandro] Nesta. Now we have grown up as a team, we have become men if you like, we have matured as a team but more importantly we have now become more clinical. For me personally I feel more at home on this stage now. I feel I have grown up over the past two years. I think as well that for the last two years, most of the team has stayed the same and we now know each others' game really well. The one thing I have learned during that time is this team never lies down, we are never beaten and that is what we will take to Milan."

They will also take a onegoal lead, leaving the tie finely balanced given the Italians have Kaka's two away goals to their name. With all United's defensive problems, even Ferguson says there is "every chance" they will concede, adding, "we have to score and we will be going there with an attitude to score."

The away record has been poor in Europe, with only this season's 1-0 victories at Benfica and Lille in the last 12 games. Ferguson is relying on those games and memories of one great triumph on Italian soil to inspire his men, "In 1999 we had to go to Juventus and win there. We have to step up a gear now."

He possesses that in Rooney and Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, with Alan Smith in reserve, the principal worry being that Scholes' erratic tackling could cost another yellow card and rule him out of any final, just as the Juventus game did eight years ago. "The advice to him the other night was not to slide in at tackles because that's where he gets all his bookings, " said Ferguson. "If anyone deserves a European final it's him, isn't it?"