Manchester United 'have to win' against Otelul Galati, says Sir Alex Ferguson

Boss says he will not make too many changes to the side that beat Everton as they aim to secure three points that will put their Champions League hopes in their own hands

The sides met two weeks ago in a match that United shaded 2-0 thanks to two Wayne Rooney penalties, and Sir Alex says that he knew the Romanian team would be difficult to beat before their last game and he will not make many alterations to the side that beat Everton at the weekend.

"I don't think there will be a lot of changes," he told the club's official website. "Mabye two or three but no more.

"We have to win on Wednesday, without doubt. We're at home and I expect us to win and, if we do that, [qualification] is in our hands when we play Benfica at home.

"I expect Benfica to beat Basel as they're in a bit of disarray with Thorsten Fink going to Hamburg. We'll hopefully win our game and, when we play Benfica at home, it'll be the decider in our section.

"Having watched [Galati], I knew nobody turns them over. Their games against Basel and Benfica had been tight and they were exactly that way against us. Galati set out their stall to make sure they weren't going to be embarassed.

"They were well organised, really determined defensively and they got stuck right into us. Some of the tackles in the second half were very aggressive. It made it a difficult type of game but I think we improved enough after half-time to be the better team.

"We had a lot of possession of the ball but sometimes when you have a lot of the ball away from home, you can play a little bit safe.

"We did that in the first half and some of the possession ended up nowhere. We had to improve on that and I thought in the second half our penetration was good, we created far more problems for them. Particularly Nani and Anderson did really well in the second half.

"It was pleasing to get the result. When [Nemanja] Vidic was sent off, and they sent that bigger lad on up front, there was a period of about 10 minutes when we had to defend really well to get the ball out of the area. But we finished the game comfortably enough."

The manager also underlined the importance of qualifying in top spot of their group, so as to avoid the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the next round.

"It's always better to finish first than second," he said. "After getting the first result against Galati and then playing them again at home, we'll hopefully go into the Benfica game with eight points. That will be an important match."