No stress against Brugge, please: Schweinsteiger

LONDON — Bastian Schweinsteiger is targeting a stress-free route to the Champions League group stages as he prepares for his European debut with Manchester United.

Schweinsteiger will find himself in the unusual position of playing in a qualifier on Tuesday night (tomorrow morning, Singapore time) when United make their return to the competition against Club Brugge.

The Germany international won the Champions League two years ago with Bayern Munich, and is determined to ensure his first experience with United does not end in disaster.

Louis van Gaal has been handed a relatively easy draw, escaping the likes of Lazio and Monaco, and United are widely expected to coast past the Belgian club over two legs.

And after two successive victories since his £15 million (S$33 million) move to England, Schweinsteiger is ready to help guide United past the playoff round.

“Winning the Champions League is a really good feeling, but I’m here now to make an impact and a good one,” he said. “I played once in a qualification for Munich, so this is a little bit different to normal group games, but our goal is first to have a good result in the first leg.

“We still have to work and improve, but we will get to the next level. I’m looking forward to it a lot, I really like the night games. I think also at Old Trafford it will be a special atmosphere there.

“It’s very important to control the game against FC Brugge; we have to score and the most important thing also is that we are like a team in defence, what we did against Aston Villa and also against Tottenham, so the team spirit is very good.”

United missed out on the Champions League last season following David Moyes’ ill-fated campaign, and have not played in the competition since April 2014. Defender Chris Smalling has admitted failing to qualify for the group stages, and then dropping into the Europa League, is a nightmare scenario.

“We don’t want to even contemplate not going through, it’s not in our heads and we shouldn’t be thinking that negatively either,” he said.

“Last year was a massive void and watching it every week was a killer and made us that much more hungry to make sure we do the job next week and in the second leg.”