Barcelona vs Manchester United Preview

Manchester United will travel to the Camp Nou this Thursday to face Barcelona in the first leg of the 2022/23 Europa League knockout playoffs.

Barcelona are in this tournament stage after finishing third in their Champions League group behind Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. At the same time, Manchester United qualified for this stage by finishing second in their Europa League group.

Both sides are European heavyweights and will be considered as favourites to win this trophy. But Barcelona have not enjoyed success in this competition in recent years. The Catalan side were considered favourites last year but were kicked out by eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt.

However, Barca aren’t the team they were last year, nor are they in as lousy form as they were when they were knocked out of the UCL earlier this season. Xavi’s men are a team in hot form and are coming into this tie on a run of 16 games without defeat (W15, D1).

They will fancy their chances here with such good form and a record against Manchester United (five wins in the last five head-to-heads). United got back to winning ways last weekend as they beat Leeds United 2-0 to rekindle their faint hopes of the Premier League title.

Erik ten Hag’s side have lost just once across 17 competitive matches (W14, D2) whilst managing eight clean sheets along the way. So, while they often have troubles against Spanish teams, they will travel to Camp Nou full of confidence.