Have you seen our record v French clubs?

The Alsace club were on the receiving end of a rampant Reds’ performance in France, as we ran out 5-0 winners at the Stade de la Meinau.

That rollicking victory, with the goals shared between Denis Law (x2), Bobby Charlton, John Connelly and David Herd, proved a sign of things to come, as we’ve tended to have the upper hand when drawn against clubs of a Gallic persuasion.

United have won 17 of our 32 meetings versus Ligue Un outfits, with 11 draws and just four defeats on our record.

Saint-Etienne were dispatched in a 1977 Cup Winners’ Cup tie – our ‘home’ leg infamously played at Home Park in Plymouth, after violence in France – before we edged out Montpellier on the way to success in that same competition 14 years later.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side progressed despite drawing the Old Trafford leg on that occasion but fell foul of the away-goals rule when held 1-1 by Monaco in the 1998 Champions League quarter-finals.

David Trezeguet’s early thunderbolt in M16 proved pivotal for Jean Tigana’s men, who are still the only French outfit to eliminate United from a European tie.

A theme of these fixtures has been the sheer variety of opposition and we doubled our tally of different sides faced over the next four years.

Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille and Nantes were group-stage opposition between 1999 and 2002 and, while Bordeaux were defeated home and away, Ferguson’s men often found things a little tougher on the road, in hostile atmospheres.

William Gallas scored the only goal as Marseille became the first French club to beat us, while United were reliant on a stoppage-time penalty from Ruud van Nistelrooy to rescue a point at Nantes.

Ruud was again the main man in 2004, breaking Law’s European scoring record as United recovered from two goals down to draw with Lyon, before registering in the return at the Theatre of Dreams - alongside a more unlikelier source of goals in Gary Neville.

Les Gones were the premier French club at this time, winning seven straight championships, but couldn’t get the better of the Reds, losing a Champions League knockout tie in 2008 when Carlos Tevez’s late away goal tipped the balance in our favour.

Between those meetings with Thursday’s opposition, we played out four tight encounters with Lille across two group-stage campaigns.

A 1-0 reverse at the Stade de France helped confirm a shock early exit in 2005, but United gained our revenge 18 months later, eliminating Les Dogues in the last 16 courtesy of a quickly taken free-kick from Ryan Giggs and Henrik Larsson’s header, in the final Old Trafford game of his loan spell.

After that glut of match-ups in the early years of this century, trips to France have become a relative rarity.

Marseille pushed us close in 2011 but were ultimately denied by Javier Hernandez, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s hat-trick put paid to Saint-Etienne hopes in the first knockout tie of our 2017 Europa League run.

Probably our most famous foray to France saw us land in Paris with a two-goal deficit to bridge, back in March 2019.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was caretaker manager and… well, you know how the rest goes, don’t you?

A Romelu Lukaku double brought an understrength and youthful United side back into contention, but we were still heading out of the Champions League when, with time ebbing away, an innocuous-looking shot from Diogo Dalot struck the arm of Presnel Kimpembe.

Four minutes of checks ensued before the referee pointed to the spot, and Marcus Rashford converted under the most extraordinary pressure to secure one of United’s great European wins.

A rendezvous with the Parisians in 2020 marks our most recent jaunt to France, with Rashford again scoring a late winner in the capital, albeit with no fans to celebrate in front of this time, due the Covid-19 pandemic.

There was also a sour note to the Old Trafford return, as PSG made the most of Fred’s red card and ran out 3-1 winners, a result that ultimately saw them progress to the knockout stages of Europe’s premier competition, at the expense of United.

Hopefully the upcoming clashes with Lyon will be more fondly recalled in future years!