Darren Fletcher has been here before and believes United’s do-or-die mission in Switzerland won’t end up in shame like Lisbon 2005.

Six years ago, the Reds went to the Estadio da Luz in Portugal for the final match of Group D a point ahead of Benfica and a point behind section leaders Villarreal.

When Paul Scholes put United into a sixth- minute lead a  ticket to the knockout stages was in the Reds’ hands. ­But it was snatched away from them in stunning fashion as Benfica scored twice before half-time and the game remained at 2-1.

The night ended in misery with even the consolation prize of a place in the then UEFA Cup denied them as results dumped them to the bottom of the group, meaning the Reds’ Euro adventure was over in December.

United missed out on the big Euro prizemoney then and need to progress now to enjoy the fruits of the lucrative Champions League.

Last season’s winners Barcelona netted £44m in total from their success, while Porto, who won the Europa League, only banked £7m from their campaign.

Fletcher was on the bench in Lisbon that dreadful night and Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Ji-sung Park all featured in the match.

That handful of Reds flew to Basel today with Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2011 squad facing another make-or-break Euro night at St Jakob-Park tomorrow evening.

Benfica again are part of the equation, though this time the Portuguese are in the other group match and expected to beat Group C whipping boys Otelul Galati in Lisbon to secure top spot.

The crucial 90 minutes is in Switzerland with United needing to avoid defeat to squeeze in as runners-up.

Midfielder Fletcher is in no doubt about the magnitude of the match.

“It allows us to qualify for the next round of the Champions League, so it doesn’t get much bigger than this,” said the Scot.

“That’s where this club needs to be, so we know we have to get a positive result if that’s what we’re going to achieve.

“It’s all about the result at the end of the day, especially in this game. We need a positive result to get through to the next round and we’ll go to win the game because you never know what’s going to happen in the Benfica game – although we fully expect them to win.

“But you never know, so it’s important we win the match. If we do that we might get a little favour with Benfica not winning, in which case we win the group.

“And if not, then we’ll finish second. But the most important thing is getting through to the next round.

“We’ve got experience of it not going right when it comes down to the last game and so we’ll try to draw from that experience and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“There are a few of us still in the squad who experienced the disappointment of that night in 2005. We’ll reiterate that experience to the rest of the lads. But they’re fully aware we don’t want that to be the case.

“The difference is we know how bad that felt the last time it happened. But we’re not thinking like that, we’re thinking about getting a positive result, like we always do, and we’ll go there to win the game.

“I’m sure if we perform to the level we know we can then we’ll get the result that’s needed.”

United were rubbing their hands privately when the Group C draw handed them one of the easier passages of the competition.

However, Old Trafford draws against Basel and Benfica have thrown the section wide open just like six years ago when home draws against Lille and Villarreal paved the way to catastrophe. 

“Of course, we’re kicking ourselves because you want to be through by this stage and you want to be in pole position to win the group,” added Fletcher.

“Unfortunately, we’re not in that position and so you look back to the two home draws against Basel and Benfica.

“If you don’t win your home games in the Champions’ League then it’s not going to be as easy as you’d like.

“So we look to those two games as the reason why we’re not where we’d like to be but we can’t do anything about that now. We can only deal with what’s in front of us in the position we’re in and challenge that obstacle.

“That means going to Basel and not losing, while trying to win the game.

“I think Basel will see it as they’ve got nothing to lose. They have to come out and try and win the game and if they do they’ll have that passionate home crowd behind them.

“But we’re used to that in Europe. We’ve built up lots of experience over the years of going into hostile atmospheres and digging deep to get results. We’ll draw on that in Basel if need be.”

United were cruising at 2-0 against the Swiss side at Old Trafford  but Basel stunned the Reds by hitting back to lead 3-2 before a late Ashley Young goal rescued a point.

“We were well aware of their attacking prowess before the first game,” said Fletcher.

“We watched DVDs of them, as we do with all teams, but they always seem to create chances and they have good strikers who can finish those chances.

“We are well aware of that and we know what to expect when we go out to Basel. They’re going to come at us because they have to win the game and we’re fully aware of that.

“We’ll be under no illusions as to what we have to do if we are to get into the next round.”

United will be without Michael Carrick in Switzerland. He picked up his third yellow card of the group in the last match against Benfica and will serve a one-game ban.

But captain Nemanja Vidic is back after he finished his two-match suspension for his red card in Bucharest against Otelul Galati in October.

Ferguson faces a striker crisis with Javier Hernandez suffering torn ankle ligaments at Aston Villa on Saturday, Michael Owen (hamstring) out until Christmas and Dimitar Berbatov (ankle) a doubt.

It leaves the United boss with Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda to choose his attack from.

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