Four of United's players will battle it out over the next week to make the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa next summer via the play-offs. And they've all been given a good luck from Sir Alex Ferguson.

Patrice Evra, Nani, John O'Shea and Darron Gibson are in action as the eight best second-placed teams from Europe's nine qualifying groups go head-to-head. The two-legged ties will see four teams go through to next summer's tournament.

There's bound to be heartache - and a fair amount of ribbing - when John O'Shea and Darron Gibson's Republic of Ireland take on Patrice Evra and France. Les Bleus travel to Croke Park on Saturday, before Ireland visit Paris on Wednesday.

"Ireland will need to win the first leg in Dublin," Sir Alex told ManUtd.com. "If they don’t get a result at home, it’s going to be difficult in Paris.

"There won’t be a lot in it because France don’t score a lot of goals, even at home. Very seldom do you see them win by more than one or two goals. In Ireland, with the atmosphere at Croke Park and 80,000 Irishmen behind them, if they get a win there I think they’ll go through."

The United boss will have his fingers crossed for Nani and Portugal - managed by his former assistant, Carlos Queiroz - who take on Bosnia and Herzegovina. "That’s a hard game," he concedes. "Bosnia were second to Spain in their group, so it won't be easy.

"The one result which will haunt Carlos [Queiroz] was when they played Denmark at home. Portugal were 2-1 up with five minutes to go but lost 3-2. That cost them the group. I'd have said that if Ronaldo was fit, they’d get a result. Without him, it's much harder. But I hope they go through for Carlos’ sake."