David Moyes's first taste of the UEFA Champions League as Manchester United FC manager comes against a Bayer 04 Leverkusen side whose coach Sami Hyypiä needs no introduction.

• For United this is their 18th consecutive UEFA Champions League campaign but for Moyes, it is his first taste of the group stage of a competition that the English title holders won twice under his predecessor, Sir Alex Ferguson.

• This is also the first UEFA Champions League fixture as a coach for Leverkusen's Sami Hyypiä, a winner as a player with Liverpool FC in 2005.

Previous meetings
• Leverkusen overcame United on away goals when the clubs met for the first time in the 2001/02 semi-finals.

• That tie began with a 2-2 first-leg draw at Old Trafford, United leading twice through a Boris Živković own goal (29) and Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty (67) and Leverkusen responding through Michael Ballack (62) and Oliver Neuville (75). Neuville's 45th-minute equaliser back in Germany cancelled out a Roy Keane goal (28), earning Klaus Toppmöller's Leverkusen a 1-1 draw on the night and victory on away goals.

• Ryan Giggs is the only survivor in either squad of that 2002 meeting at Old Trafford while Phil Neville, now United's first-team coach, was an 18th-minute substitute for his brother Gary. Giggs played in the return leg too, with Phil Neville an unused substitute. Dimitar Berbatov, a future United player, featured in both games for Leverkusen.

• United avenged that defeat by beating Leverkusen home and away in the next season's first group stage. Giggs and Neville played in United's 2-1 away success in September 2002, Van Nistelrooy (31, 44) scoring twice before Berbatov (52) pulled a goal back.

• United then prevailed 2-0 back at Old Trafford, Juan Sebastian Verón (42) and Van Nistelrooy (69) scoring after Jan Šimák's early penalty miss for the visitors. United advanced to the second group stage as section winners, with Leverkusen in second place.

• The lineups for that last encounter in Manchester were:
Manchester United: Ricardo, O'Shea, Blanc (G Neville 77), Ferdinand, Silvestre, Beckham (Solskjær 78), Verón, Fortune, Giggs (Chadwick 81), Scholes, Van Nistelrooy.

Leverkusen: Butt, Živković, Kleine, Ramelow, Sebescen, Balitsch (Preuss 81), Babic, Šimák, Bierofka (Dogan 78), Berbatov (Franca 62), Brdaric.