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Nani counting on Rooney

MANCHESTER, January 26 – Manchester United winger Nani believes team-mate Wayne Rooney's form can make the difference as United seek to overcome Manchester City in their League Cup semi-final second leg here on Wednesday.
City hold a 2-1 advantage from last week’s first game at Eastlands, with a place in the final against Aston Villa at stake.

Ryan Giggs opened the scoring last Tuesday, only for former United player Carlos Tevez to score twice to put City in the driving seat for what is sure to be a highly charged return match in the wake of Tevez’s acrimonious public spat with former team-mate Gary Neville.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has insisted that United’s away goal should count for nothing, as they should secure their trip to Wembley in normal time.

He has also hinted that Rooney’s desire to play in every game and natural enthusiasm means that the England striker is unlikely to be rested after scoring all four goals in United’s 4-0 win over Hull at the weekend.

Nani was also impressive against Phil Brown’s Tigers as he made his comeback following several weeks out with an ankle injury.

The winger was hoping to fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo but has struggled for form this season.

However, he thinks he can build on his display against Hull.

He said: "Everyone is very happy. It’s great to be top of the table and it’s given everyone a lot of confidence. We’re playing well, scoring goals and feeling good.

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"The game against City will be very hard, but it’s great that we have someone like Wayne who is in good form and feeling confident.

"It’s great to see one of your strikers score four goals and it gives everyone confidence because we know we have someone who can score goals in every match.

"I’m sure it’ll be a fantastic atmosphere against City and I’d love to be involved. Hopefully we can get the win.

"It was very frustrating to be out injured, but it happens in football. I’m back now and I feel very good.

"I was happy with my performance against Hull and I just want to keep improving every week so I can help the team be successful."

Ferguson has already confirmed that Rio Ferdinand, who returned from a back problem against Hull, is unlikely to feature against City as he looks ahead to Sunday’s vital Premier League game at Arsenal.

City lost 4-3 at Old Trafford in September but Brazilian defender Sylvinho thinks their playing style is perfectly-suited to playing away from home.

Roberto Mancini’s side beat Scunthorpe 4-2 in the FA Cup on Sunday and he is likely to make a host of changes for the short trip to United.

City are potentially just 90 minutes away from a first major final since 1981 and Sylvinho thinks that Mancini has given his side the confidence to kill United off in what is sure to be an intense atmosphere.

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"The mentality of the team is good. The boss is asking us to play football as soon as we can and that makes a difference when you’re on the pitch.

"We’re trying to play good football and it’s helping the team a lot and we’ve got the kind of players that can do that so that’s good for us.

"We’re looking forward to Wednesday. It was hard to play against Scunthorpe without thinking about Manchester United but we had to be professional.

"Now we’ve got to recover and Wednesday is going to be hard but we have a chance because we won at home. We know it’s going to be difficult but we have a chance."

Mancini could be boosted by the return of captain Kolo Toure after the Ivory Coast were knocked out of the African Nations Cup and Emmanuel Adebayor might also be back after returning from compassionate leave granted after he was caught up in the machine gun attack on the Togo team bus before the start of the tournament.

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