MANCHESTER United and Lille will conclude their first knockout-round tie tomorrow with United the favorite to advance to the last eight.

Both teams warmed up for the match with weekend wins, United staying nine points clear at the top of the Premier League with a late goal securing a 1-0 win at Liverpool, while Lille ended a three-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over Troyes.

United has a one-goal advantage over Lille after winning the first leg 1-0 thanks to a quickly-taken free kick by Ryan Giggs, which incensed the Lille players to protest about the goal so vehemently the club has been charged by UEFA with improper conduct.

Crowd trouble earlier at Lens’ Felix-Bollaert Stadium landed Lille in trouble with UEFA with a hearing set for March 22, while the side’s appeal against the validity of the goal has already been rejected by UEFA.

Lille is still seething over what the side claimed was an illegal goal by Giggs with Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie saying the referee made a mistake.

“In France we always wait for the whistle, but even considering the rule about quick free kicks, this goal was not valid. We had already been organizing ourselves for several seconds,” he said. (SD-Agencies)