Sir Alex Ferguson is looking forward to watching Ajax's Christian Eriksen after insisting Manchester United want to win the Europa League.

Eriksen: Due to face Manchester United

United face Ajax in the first leg of the last 32 of the Europa League on Thursday and Eriksen is expected to be one of the influential figures in the tie.

The Denmark international has been linked with a string of Europe's leading teams, including United, following a string of impressive performances for club and country.

Ferguson is aware of the interest in the attacking midfielder and is ready to take the opportunity to run a personal check over Eriksen.

"There's been a lot of attention on him," said the United boss. "Everybody's been watching him. We'll see what he's like."

The Red Devils are competing in the Europa League after crashing out of the group phase of the Champions League, which Ferguson has described as a 'punishment'.

His comments had drawn criticism from UEFA president Michel Platini, however, Ferguson is determined to make an impact in the competition.

Ferguson added: "We definitely want to win this tournament. I am treating this seriously. We're going to have a go.

"The thing is to look forward to it. It's still European football, it's still a good standard of football.

"The great thing is that we don't have a game on the Saturday, so I can play my strongest team and I will play my strongest team.

"Hopefully we can get through. If we do, we play Athletic Bilbao or Lokomotiv Moscow in the next round, so that would be a challenge, but then it takes you to the quarter-finals and once you get that far you say to yourself: 'let's go the whole road'.

"I'll treat it as I treated some of the group games in the Champions League, but be a bit more careful with the number of young players I play in these games.

"It depends who we've got the following weekend in the Premier League."