'Now we’re back:' Michael Carrick hails ‘magical’ Champions League ahead of Man Utd return

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick is excited to kick off the Champions League campaign (Niall Carson/PA)

Michael Carrick is excited for Manchester United’s return to the “magical” Champions League but admits the scheduling of their opener is not ideal ahead of facing rivals Manchester City.

Old Trafford welcomes surprise package Sabah on Thursday as the Red Devils play their first match in the competition since a home loss to Bayern Munich in December 2023.

The first league phase fixture ends United’s 1,003-day wait to feature in the Champions League, which head coach Carrick won with the club as a player in 2008.

“It means an awful lot,” the former midfielder said.

“It’s challenging yourself against the elite, the very best and, I’ve said it before, I think over a long, long, long period of time, this football club’s been used to challenging with the best and being the best.

“It’s not something that you can take for granted, what it takes to be there and what it takes to stay there and we’ve missed out on it for a number of years, and now we’re back, so I think it means a lot.

“It’s where we want to be every single year and it’s where we should expect to be, without being ahead of ourselves.”

Carrick called winning the competition the “best feeling” of his career and said it would “be nice someday to feel that again” as United look to make the most of their return to European football’s top table.

He said: “It’s a magical competition. It’s where we all want to be.

“When you’re out of it, you realise how special it is, and when you’re in it, you want to make the most of it.

“I think we’ve all seen some special, special nights and felt some special things in this competition over the years.

“It’s where we want to be, it’s what we want to get back to, and it’s the best competition to challenge yourself and to push against the best.

“We’re delighted to be here, but we’re not here to just enjoy the occasion. We’re here to do business and go as far as we possibly can.”

United’s Champions League return, in truth, feels more like a Europa League or Conference League fixture given they are playing on a Thursday evening and against the champions of Azerbaijan.

The scheduling brings a familiar turnaround to a Sunday league game for the Red Devils, who host City in a derby that Enzo Maresca’s men have an two extra days to prepare for having faced Porto on Tuesday.

“I’m not concerned,” Carrick said. “Listen, I wouldn’t say it’s ideal in some ways but it’s not something that we’ve given too much thought about.

“We’re not in control of that. We’ve got to deal with the cards that we’re dealt and that’s what it is, so we’ll make the most of it.”

United will be without Carlos Baleba, Amad Diallo, Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte against Sabah, while Luke Shaw sat out training on Wednesday.

“We just gave him an extra recovery day today,” Carrick said.

“We’ll see by tomorrow how he is, but it’s not an ongoing thing or a plan or anything like that. It was just off the back of the game the other day (against Everton on Sunday).

“So, as normal, each individual has kind of different little things that we manage, and Luke was one of them today.”