Europa League Play-off 1st Leg

Barcelona 2:2 Manchester United

Camp Nou

Kick-off
Thu, 16 February 2023 @ 5:45pm GMT
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Discussion Your Lineup Prediction

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    united_99 said:
    Despite all the “funny” posts about suspensions, there will still be several people asking on Thursday once the line-up will be leaked “FFS why are Martinez and Sabitzer not starting??”
    Click to expand...

    Yeah absolutely guaranteed,was a shambles that none of them from the Utd Stand panel on Sunday realised Sabitzer was suspended
     
    NLunited said:
    That looks right. Rashford could switch to the left and center during the game, like what happened against Leeds. There will be lots of space to exploit.
    Click to expand...

    Barcelona is a team that presses hard and very high. I heard Setien say that Barcelona is the team that runs the most in the league.

    Minute 1:06

    Minute 84 of match. This was 10 days ago.
     
    ——————————DdG——————-

    -AwB——Varane——Shaw—-Malacia-

    —————Casemiro—-Fred—————-

    ————————Bruno————————

    —Anthony——-Rashford——Sancho-


    subs: heaton, Maguire, Lindelof, mainoo, McTominay, Weghorst, garnacho

    Prediction: 1-2 Rashford, bruno
     
    Longlivekeano said:
    ——————————DdG——————-

    -AwB——Varane——Shaw—-Malacia-

    —————Casemiro—-Fred—————-

    ————————Bruno————————

    —Anthony——-Rashford——Sancho-


    subs: heaton, Maguire, Lindelof, mainoo, McTominay, Weghorst, garnacho

    Prediction: 1-2 Rashford, bruno
    Click to expand...
    With the way they play it’s crazy, that midfield won’t hold them take off one of antony or sancho for a midfielder
     
    TheRedHearted said:
    With the way they play it’s crazy, that midfield won’t hold them take off one of antony or sancho for a midfielder
    Click to expand...
    That midfield is fine what do you mean. It's casemiro, Fred and Bruno, all 3 hard workers and with casemiro it has excellent balance. Might not be enough anyway but it won't be the midfield being too porous.

    Also - you can't just say take off an attacker for a mid. We physically don't have other midfielders. They're all out.
     
    I love the fact we play United. It makes this shitty competition a bit more interesting. I usually wouldn't give a feck about it but playing United is always a luxury.
    Either a draw or we win by one goal is my prediction.
     
    bosnian_red said:
    That midfield is fine what do you mean. It's casemiro, Fred and Bruno, all 3 hard workers and with casemiro it has excellent balance. Might not be enough anyway but it won't be the midfield being too porous.

    Also - you can't just say take off an attacker for a mid. We physically don't have other midfielders. They're all out.
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    Ten Hag played Lindelof in midfield before, I would rather him in the middle with casemiro to stop Barcelona and their two wonder kids there, with the pullbacks etc. ideally i would have Shaw there but we don’t have a competent backup to Martinez, another reason why we need a new cb.
     
    I'd rather play Lindelof over Malacia and have Shaw at LB. Moving Shaw away from LB robs us of one of our best options going forward. It is completely unnecessary.
     
    Weghorst absolutely can't play in this game.

    We need runners since they'll dominate the ball.
     
    Lewandowksi is going through a bit of a dry spell at the moment, which undoubtable means he'll get a hattrick.

    I don't fear Barca. They will dominate the midfield and the ball. We are better on the counter anyway.

    I'd guess Barcelona line up

    Ter Stergen
    Kounde - Araujo - Christensen - Balde
    Frenkie - Kessie - Pedri
    Raphina - Lewandowski - Gavi​

    Perhaps Araujo will play RB to mark Rashford if Rashford starts LW, with Kounde then playing CB.

    I'm not convinced despite them only conceding 7 goals all season, that we can't get in behind that back line.
     
    Bwuk said:
    Lewandowksi is going through a bit of a dry spell at the moment, which undoubtable means he'll get a hattrick.

    I don't fear Barca. They will dominate the midfield and the ball. We are better on the counter anyway.

    I'd guess Barcelona line up

    Ter Stergen
    Kounde - Araujo - Christensen - Balde
    Frenkie - Kessie - Pedri
    Raphina - Lewandowski - Gavi​

    Perhaps Araujo will play RB to mark Rashford if Rashford starts LW, with Kounde then playing CB.

    I'm not convinced despite them only conceding 7 goals all season, that we can't get in behind that back line.
    Click to expand...
    Theres no pace in that team at all. I’m guessing not many teams press high in La Liga because there’s no chance of falling victim to a ball over the top if they did.
    Must be a slow league these days
     
    Looking forward to this. I see it as a bit of a free hit. We have good opportunities to win silverware in the domestic cups and we are well placed to get Champions League qualification through the league so progress in this competition would just be a bonus.

    If we lose, it makes our schedule far more manageable and should help us maximise our points haul in the league. The worst case is obviously that we expend too much energy over the two legs and still get eliminated, lose the league cup final and drop points in the league.

    If we do get through it’s a big statement to make on the European stage and with one of Fenerbahce, Real Betis, Union Saint-Gilloise, Real Sociedad, Feyenoord, Freiburg or Ferencvarosi waiting for us in the next round, I would fancy us to progress to the quarter finals and have another big chance of silverware.

    For the tie itself, I think Barcelona are favourites. They are in really good form and our absentees give us a few problems. Martial, Martinez, Eriksen, Sabitzer and possibly Antony are big misses. We also know that our record against Spanish opposition is not great.

    It will be interesting to see how Ten Hag approaches it tactically. Barcelona are often playing with four midfielders now so we will probably see Kessie, De Jong, Gavi and Pedri in the middle of the park, which is obviously very strong.

    Maybe we will see a midfield 3 plus Bruno on the right as this would give us the flexibility during the game to try and match them in the midfield if they become too dominant. Having said that, I’m not sure we have the numbers to actually do that with Eriksen, Sabitzer, McTominay and Van De Beek all out.

    Also, we may be prepared to let them have control in that area and threaten on the counter attack. Rashford is obviously our biggest threat and this approach suits him. Garnacho is a big threat on the break too and we could potentially play Rashford through the middle to incorporate him, although Ten Hag likes the back-to-goal presence of Weghorst as a means of starting attacks.

    What I would like to see:

    ———————-DDG
    Dalot—Varane—Shaw—Malacia
    ——————-Casemiro
    ————Bruno———-Fred
    Sancho/Antony————Garnacho
    ——————Rashford

    A left-field shout of what we might see from Ten Hag to manage us through the first 60 mins of the tie before moving Rashford central and bringing Garnacho on:


    ————————DDG
    Dalot——Varane——Shaw——Malacia
    ————————Lindelof
    ——————Casemiro
    ———-Bruno——————Fred
    ————————————————Rashford
    ———————Weghorst
     
    Fascinating to see the team we went with when we got pumped 3-0 under Solskjaer in 2019.

    De Gea
    Lindelof Smalling Jones Young
    McTominay Fred Pogba
    Lingard
    Rashford Martial

    What a car crash of an 11. Barca also had Messi, Suarez and a fit Busquets.
     
    Eddy_JukeZ said:
    Weghorst absolutely can't play in this game.

    We need runners since they'll dominate the ball.
    Click to expand...

    He's quite good at pressing the opposition back line.
    I'd rather give him 60 minutes to tire them out and then switch Rashford in the middle and fire young Garnacho on the left, 30 minutes to get a goal.

    I'm guessing it's gonna be a cagey game.
     
    Being a rather casual observer of La Liga, I only just noticed that Barcelona have conceded just seven goals this season. That's pretty impressive.

    Is this mostly down to them dominating the ball so much, or are their defenders really good? I'm a fan of Andreas Christensen, the rest I'm not too aware of.
     
    DDG

    Dalot
    Varane
    Shaw
    Malacia

    Casemiro
    Fred

    Sancho
    Bruno
    Garnacho

    Rashford
     
    Mike Smalling said:
    Being a rather casual observer of La Liga, I only just noticed that Barcelona have conceded just seven goals this season. That's pretty impressive.

    Is this mostly down to them dominating the ball so much, or are their defenders really good? I'm a fan of Andreas Christensen, the rest I'm not too aware of.
    Click to expand...

    I think their defense is decent but they've also switched to a system where they basically play 4 midfielders. They dominate the ball and also provide a big shield to the defense.

    We won't see much of the ball tomorrow night. Our best chances to score probably will be on the break.
     
    Mike Smalling said:
    Being a rather casual observer of La Liga, I only just noticed that Barcelona have conceded just seven goals this season. That's pretty impressive.

    Is this mostly down to them dominating the ball so much, or are their defenders really good? I'm a fan of Andreas Christensen, the rest I'm not too aware of.
    Click to expand...

    Hadn't realised that either, that actually is very impressive. Next best defence has conceded 17.
     
    Eddy_JukeZ said:
    Weghorst absolutely can't play in this game.

    We need runners since they'll dominate the ball.
    Click to expand...

    We'll see, but it might be useful to have someone to act as an outball who can hold it up as we transition, especially without Antony.

    I think he'll start, and then we'll switch Rashford central later on to give their defenders something different to think about.
     
    Ten Lasso said:
    Fascinating to see the team we went with when we got pumped 3-0 under Solskjaer in 2019.

    De Gea
    Lindelof Smalling Jones Young
    McTominay Fred Pogba
    Lingard
    Rashford Martial

    What a car crash of an 11. Barca also had Messi, Suarez and a fit Busquets.
    Click to expand...

    That defence :eek:
     
    I'm still scarred from those CL finals, hopefully it'll be two good games that highlight the progress we're making.
     
    Against Villareal, Araujo really bailed them out at the back with many last ditch tackles / interceptions.

    Still, their defensive record is impressive, so we have to be clinical with the chances we do get.

    We won't see much of the ball, but playing on the break will suit us, especially with Marcus' form.

    Im hoping we can win this one.
     
    Important to note that we beat city and Arsenal once and lost once to each this season. Barca are probably a roughly similar level in terms of their top level this season, bit lower probably.

    MY biggest concern would be missing so many players and the fixture congestion. Our only useful sub will be Garnacho essentially, so that's not ideal.
     
    Bwuk said:
    Lewandowksi is going through a bit of a dry spell at the moment, which undoubtable means he'll get a hattrick.

    I don't fear Barca. They will dominate the midfield and the ball. We are better on the counter anyway.

    I'd guess Barcelona line up

    Ter Stergen
    Kounde - Araujo - Christensen - Balde
    Frenkie - Kessie - Pedri
    Raphina - Lewandowski - Gavi​

    Perhaps Araujo will play RB to mark Rashford if Rashford starts LW, with Kounde then playing CB.

    I'm not convinced despite them only conceding 7 goals all season, that we can't get in behind that back line.
    Click to expand...

    I think a lot of their worst defending came with a different backline though, if you look at the CL because of injuries, they played a backline of Bellerin - Alonso - Pique - Alba for their last game. That backline there is light years ahead of that.
     
    They're absolutely flying at the moment, right? Big ask.

    Still, this is the sort of fixture the players, and fans, wanted United playing. Just not in the second tier tournament.
     
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Post-match discussion

Man of the Match

Marcus Rashford image Marcus Rashford 72% of 300 votes

Runners-up

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Player Ratings

6.6 Total Average Rating

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Score Predictions

55,94,84
  • Man Utd win
  • Barcelona win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 27% Barcelona 1:1 Man Utd
  • 16% Barcelona 2:1 Man Utd
  • 12% Barcelona 1:2 Man Utd
  • 12% Barcelona 2:0 Man Utd
  • 6% Barcelona 0:1 Man Utd
  • 5% Barcelona 1:0 Man Utd
  • 4% Barcelona 0:0 Man Utd
  • 4% Barcelona 2:2 Man Utd
  • 4% Barcelona 3:1 Man Utd
  • 3% Barcelona 3:0 Man Utd
  • 3% Barcelona 0:2 Man Utd
  • 1% Barcelona 1:3 Man Utd
  • 1% Barcelona 0:3 Man Utd
  • 0% Barcelona 4:0 Man Utd
  • 0% Barcelona 1:4 Man Utd
  • 0% Barcelona 5:0 Man Utd
  • 0% Barcelona 0:9 Man Utd
  • 0% Barcelona 5:1 Man Utd
  • 0% Barcelona 9:1 Man Utd
Compiled from 233 predictions.
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Match Stats

  1. Barcelona
  2. Man Utd
Possession
61% 39%
Shots
18 18
Shots on Target
8 5
Corners
8 5
Fouls
10 12

Referee

Maurizio Mariani

Man Utd Lineup

Substitutes

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