Rio Eyes Early Qualification

Rio Ferdinand wants a repeat of Manchester United's performance against Bayer Leverkusen at Old Trafford when the Reds travel to Germany for Wednesday's Champions League group-stage fixture.

United beat the Bundesliga side 4-2 in September, with Ferdinand recalling "there was a lot of fluidity about our team – good interchanges, quick passing, plenty of first-time balls and lots of running".

"It was good but we want to improve further on that," he said. "We need to pick up points and it would be nice if we could finish the job this week with a win."

Victory would secure safe passage to the competition's latter stages and Rio and his team-mates are eyeing qualification with a game to spare.

"If we go there and put in a good team performance I'm sure we can come away with the points," he said.

Leverkusen warmed up for Wednesday's clash with a 1-0 win against Hertha Berlin, with striker Stefan Kiessling scoring his 12th goal of the season so far.

Kiessling didn't net when United and Bayer met earlier this season, but Ferdinand knows exactly what the 29-year-old is capable of.

"He has good movement and we watched a lot of videos on him before [the game at Old Trafford] so we knew a lot of the dangers he posed. He's scored a lot of goals over in Germany in the past few seasons so we know we have to be on our toes to make sure he doesn't get many chances because he's definitely capable of finishing them.

"Video analysis is a big part of preparation before every Champions League game. If you want to get an insight into how your opponents are going to play then you have to watch videos because we don’t see them every week.

"We obviously watch a lot of Premier League football and a few big games from other leagues, but we don't watch the Bundesliga every week. Leading up to a Champions League game you spend a couple of days getting to know your opponents so there are no surprises come kick-off.

"As a defender I watch the forward play, the way the team attacks and then individual players and how they move. It's important for defenders because we're reacting to the forwards' positions, their movements, their runs, the way they strike the ball, the foot they use to shoot with... we take a lot from those videos."