This week’s UEFA Europa League elimination phase playoffs begin on Thursday when Barcelona hosts Manchester United at Camp Nou.
After placing third in their Champions League group early in the season, trailing Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, Barcelona has now been placed in the Europa League.
Despite being tied with Real Sociedad for second place in their Europa League group with 15 points, Manchester United came in second.
Starting with the opponents, Barcelona, who only won two of their six Champions League group stage matches, drawing one and losing three.
Since they didn’t make it to the UCL round of 16, the Spanish powerhouses were sent to the Europa League for the second year in a row.
Barcelona is still having a great domestic season. With only one loss in 21 La Liga games, they are 11 points ahead of Real Madrid in second place.
In addition to winning each of their last 11 matches in all tournaments, Xavi’s team has also won 15 of their previous 16 matches. That is obviously bad news for Manchester United.
But because Manchester United has had a good run of late, they will be confident that they will move on from the first leg.
The Red Devils have gone 17 games without a loss in all tournaments, winning 14 of those games.
The Red Devils have gone 17 games without a loss in all tournaments, winning 14 of those games.It’s also important to remember that Erik ten Hag’s team won five of their first six Europa League group matches, scoring 10 goals and allowing only three.
United will be sure that they can stop Barcelona from scoring because they haven’t given up a goal in any of their last three Europa League games.
In the last six important games between the two teams, Manchester United has only been able to beat Barcelona once, and that was in 2008.
Barcelona vs Man United Predictions
Since then, Barca has defeated the Red Devils four times in a row in the Champions League, scoring more than 1.5 goals on three of those occasions.
Barcelona vs Man United Team News
News about the team is that Ousmane Dembele and Sergio Busquets may not be able to play in the first leg because of injuries.
Donny van de Beek and Christian Eriksen are out for the long term for Manchester United, while Scott McTominay, Anthony Martial, and Anthony are questionable.
Both teams will want to stay in the match with the second leg set for February 23 at Old Trafford, so Thursday’s encounter is sure to be a close one.
