Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson goes into his 1000th game in charge of The Red Devils in an happy mood, claiming Champions League nights have been the highlight of his 18-year career at Old Trafford.

The Scotsman's 1000th game will be at home to French outfit Lyon, who currently top Group D with 10 points, two points in front of United and a whopping 7 points ahead of 3rd placed side, Fenerbahce.

Ferguson said: "Some of the greatest moments I have had here have been European matches, so to mark my 1000th match as manager with a Champions League tie is just perfect,"

"After that you have a dream of being in a European Cup and playing against the great teams. It's only since the advent of the Champions League that you have all these teams together in one competition but that has just made it harder to win."

"Even so, I think it's a fact that in terms of the general history of our club we should expect to have won it the same number of times as the likes of Ajax, Bayern and AC Milan."

"I divorce Real Madrid from this scenario purely because the number of times they have won it is quite exceptional."

He added: "But certainly for the other powers in Europe there is no reason why we should not be thinking of winning it the same number of times."

However, Ferguson also admitted that sometimes the Champions League haven't been on United's recently, commenting: "We have been very unlucky at times and the Bayer Leverkusen semi-final was one of those times but generally I can look back and be proud of the achievements of the team in terms of performance.

"Yes, sometimes we have been disappointed with the outcome of matches in the latter stages but at the end of the day our performance level over the past decade has been one of the highest level in Europe."

Manager of Italian giants Juventus, Fabio Capello, has praised his friend Sir Alex Ferguson, touting his success as "historical".

"For sure, it's an historical achievement, for what he did and what he's doing."

"1,000 times on the bench is really a lot but you can obtain this with few teams. What is amazing is the fact that Ferguson has been managing Manchester for 18 years.

"My best wishes to my friend Alex."

ManUtdWeb would like to thank Sir Alex Ferguson for 18 joyous years at Old Trafford and 1,000 games.