Tom: Win Laid Down Marker

Tom Cleverley believes Manchester United will continue to show their true colours in the Champions League as the Reds prepare to take on Shakhtar Donetsk.

Although a 5-0 thumping of Bayer Leverkusen in the last European outing proved the team's quality, consecutive home defeats in the Barclays Premier League have left David Moyes' side in ninth place in the domestic table.

A final Group A fixture against Shakhtar allows United the opportunity to remain unbeaten in the competition and top the table ahead of the draw for the knockout stages. With Leverkusen producing a fine 1-0 win at Borussia Dortmund last Saturday, moving six points clear in second place in the Bundesliga, there can be no doubting the Reds' form in the continent's premier competition.

"It’s been a pleasing European campaign," Cleverley told United Review, the official matchday programme. "Our experience over the years has made us realise we must win our home games and pick up as many positive away results as we can. That’s what we’ve done, it’s gone to plan and we just need to finish off the job against Shakhtar.

"I think that [the 5-0 win last time out] was maybe a bit of an eye opener to say that we’re still about and we’re still one of the teams to beat. Leverkusen are second in the Bundesliga so to beat them away from home convincingly puts down a marker across Europe.

"I think we can go as far as we want to in the Champions League. We were written off in Europe last year but we deserved to go through against Real Madrid, even their manager [Jose Mourinho] said that."