Darren Fletcher has yet to feature in a Champions League final, despite being at the club during the three finals United have played in over recent years.

He was an unused substitute in 2008 when he lost out to Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes. In 2009 Fletch was wrongly shown a straight red card during United’s 3-1 victory over Arsenal in the second leg, having beaten them 1-0 in the first leg, after making a great challenge on Cesc Fabregas to win the ball. In 2011 he lost out to Carrick and Ryan Giggs. In both the games he was on the bench he was an unused sub.

“For whatever reasons, I’ve not managed to play in a final,” he explained at the press conference. “Different circumstances have prevented me from playing in three of them. It’s been a dream of mine since I was a small boy to play in a Champions League final and winning tomorrow night takes us into the semi-finals and gets you closer to achieving that. But it’s more important that the club and team get there than individuals and, if the team get there, then you do your best in the games and hope that you’re selected to play in it. But as I said before, the most important thing for us is to win tomorrow night and get ourselves in the semi-finals, then we’ll take it from there.”