Manchester: Wayne Rooney has identified Barcelona and Tottenham as the two biggest threats to Manchester United as they challenge for Champions League glory this season.
United beat Marseille 2-1 on Tuesday night to book a place in Friday's draw for the quarter-finals, with Javier Hernandez scoring a decisive double before a late own goal from Wes Brown.
Sir Alex Ferguson's side scraped through with an unconvincing performance at Old Trafford and suffered fresh injury concerns as John O'Shea and Rafael Da Silva were both withdrawn with pulled hamstrings.
Rooney, however, believes United have the quality to challenge for the Champions League as well as the Premier League and FA Cup as the club target a memorable treble.
And when asked of the main rivals ahead of Friday's quarter-final draw, Rooney said: "Obviously Barcelona are playing some great football.
"I'm also enjoying watching Tottenham at the minute. It's great to see what they are doing in their first year in the Champions League.
"I'm happy we have been playing on different days to them because it's good watching them.
"I don't know if playing an English team in the Champions League is different to the Premier League. There is a lot more riding on it.
"If you lose to a rival in the league, you have 37 games to catch up. If you lose in the Champions League, you're out."
The 25-year-old striker also hailed two-goal hero Hernandez as the "steal of the season" after the Mexican, signed for £7 million last summer, took his tally for the campaign up to 16 with another highly impressive display of movement and finishing.
"He's definitely the steal of the season," Rooney added. "He's scored 16 goals and he's been fantastic. He works hard as well – he wants to improve so it's good to see.
"Javier is a fantastic player. He scored two more goals, he's in good form and it's nice to play with him.
"He always stays on the shoulder and looks in behind. He's a quick player and creates space."
Both Rooney as an individual and United as a team have been criticised this season for lacklustre performances.
But the England man insists the run-in to the end of the season is shaping up well after he provided an assist for the opening goal and produced an encouraging all-round display.
He said: "I'm enjoying my football at the moment. I'm getting on the ball and getting involved.
"Although I was scoring goals last season, I wasn't getting involved in the game. I think as a football player, you want to be involved and linking play up.
"Of course I want to take more responsibility. When you set a goal up it's a great feeling and it's up there with scoring.
"I'd take the treble all day. If you look at Inter last season, they won the treble but you wouldn't say they were the most entertaining team to watch."
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