If Manchester United is to have any chance of defeating Bayern Munich and making it to the Champions League, Erik ten Hag thinks their supporters can be their secret weapon.

To have any chance of advancing in the competition, United needs to defeat the Bundesliga champions tonight, and even that will depend on Copenhagen and Galatasaray drawing in the other game.

If United is to maintain the dream, many things must go their way, but Ten Hag is ready for his team to at least contribute and fight to the very end.

The manager of United will be seeking to build on their well-earned victory against Chelsea one week ago, and he also thinks that the Old Trafford crowd will be crucial to helping them replicate that success.

“I think we can take our belief from the game against Chelsea,” he told official club media. “We know also what happened at the weekend but we want to go back to those levels against Chelsea.

“When we do that – when we have the right spirit and mood, when we have that strong belief, I am sure the fans will be behind us. They will energise us, they will support us and we will come to a high level. That is necessary if you are to beat Bayern Munich.”

United has only won one game in the Champions League despite scoring 12 goals so far. Ten Hag is optimistic that his team can maintain their excellent scoring streak even if another high-scoring game may be in store for them tonight.

He added: “It is a very attractive team, Bayern Munich, but as you say, especially in the Champions League but also in other games, [against] Chelsea [for example], we created so many chances.

“This team can play very attractive and dynamic football [and] create from that point of view a lot of chances. I think we are able to score a lot of goals and I am aware they have a lot of individual quality so we have to defend very well.”