A European classic will offer another electric episode to soccer fans, as Barcelona and Manchester United will go head-to-head at Camp Nou in the Europa League round of 32′s first-leg game.
Barcelona vs Manchester United preview
Barcelona
The Europa League round of 32 is here and the Catalan giants find themselves playing at this stage of the competition for their second consecutive year after another huge disappointment in the Champions League, where they were kicked out by Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.
However, since their embarrassing 3-0 loss to the Bavarians in October, Xavi Hernández’s men have been almost unbeatable, as their injured players started to recover, especially in defense.
Manchester United
Meanwhile, the English side, who are competing in the Europa League for the sixth time in their last 12 seasons was defeated in their first game of the tournament vs. Real Sociedad (1-0), although United won five consecutive games after that in the European competition to comfortably book a spot among the best 16 teams.
Erik ten Hag’s men are aware that February could be a key month for their most immediate future, with an EFL Cup final game against Newcastle United and a FA Cup fifth-round tie with West Ham United in March.
Moreover, they are sitting third in the Premier League standings, with 46 points, two behind Manchester City and five away from Arsenal, who are topping the table. United, though have played one more game than The Citizens and two more than The Gunners.
Barcelona vs Man United history
In total, Barcelona and Manchester United have faced each other 13 times, with Barcelona winning six, compared to United’s three, alongside four draws.
Within the list, there has been 10 Champions League clashes, from 1994 to 2019, and three previous meetings in the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
Despite some positivity for United in their early skirmishes with Barcelona, the La Liga superpower have dominated during the Premier League era, with success in the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals.
Barcelona vs Man United head-to-head
Two final defeats underlined the gap between Barcelona and United — and the rest of Europe — at the time and Messi again turned on the style to dump United out of the 2018/19 Champions League, with a superb double at the Camp Nou in the quarterfinals.
Recent history does not have much positivity for United, but they have enjoyed their moments, including Paul Scholes’ 2008 bullet at Old Trafford which knocked Barcelona out and put United on course for glory in Moscow.
Xavi never named names, but he did say there were players who didn’t understand what he was teaching. “[The players] were not working on positional play, and we defend differently to the way they did under the previous coach,” he said in December 2021. “We don’t understand the way we want to play football. It’s strange that there are Barca players that don’t understand positional play.”
De Jong was regularly taken off early in games, which led to the conclusion last summer that, for that right transfer fee, he could be considered surplus at Camp Nou.