Euro draw excites Fletch

Darren Fletcher says the players will be watching with great interest when the draw for the Champions League group stages is made on Thursday tea-time.

The current holders will discover their upcoming opponents around 18:00 BST at the draw in Monaco, also the setting for the Reds' UEFA Super Cup final clash with Zenit St. Petersburg on Friday evening.

Given United's status as defending champions, Fletcher insists there is an even bigger sense of excitement around the camp ahead of this season's draw.

"It's always very exciting and you really look forward to finding out who you'll be pitting your wits against," the midfielder told ManUtd.com.

"There a lot of factors involved in the draw - not only do you look at who you're up against which could be a team you've played many times before or it might be a new challenge, you look at how far you'll be travelling.

"The excitement levels are the same each year, but I think they'll be even more so this time because we're defending champions."

English teams have been a dominant force in Europe's biggest club competition in recent years. There has been at least one Premier League side in the last four finals, with United and Liverpool running out winners in 2008 and 2005 respectively.

Fletcher fully expects one or more of the English clubs to be involved in the latter stages of the competition, and is confident last season's triumph will stand United in good stead.

"We want to be the first team to defend the trophy since it was reformatted," he insisted. "English clubs have done very well in the last couple of seasons and they are major players in Europe now.

"But each year you set out, you can name at least eight clubs that have a good chance of winning it or at least doing well. That's why it's easier said than done to defend the title.

"Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and the top Spanish and Italian teams are all expected to be there or thereabouts. But if we can show the form from last season and learn from the experience of winning it, then we can take it on again this season."