Two giants of European football participate in the UEFA Europa League play-off round of 16, in which Barcelona and Manchester United meet in Europe for the fourteenth time.
Barcelona finished third in their UEFA Champions League group with seven points for the second consecutive season after 17 successive years in the knockout stages of that competition, behind Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, while United finished second on goal difference against Real Sociedad in Group E of the UEFA Europa League, despite adding 15 points, they are more than five group winners.
Previous fights
The two clubs are old acquaintances in UEFA competition, with six wins for Barça to three for United and 24 goals to 15 against the English side. The La Liga club has also won the sides’ last four meetings, including the 2009 and 2011 UEFA Champions League finals, although United lead the two-legged playoffs with two wins against Barca’s.
Barcelona’s only win came in the sides’ last meeting, when they eliminated United from the quarter-finals of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League, winning 1-0 at Old Trafford thanks to a Luke own goal. brace from Lionel Messi and a goal from Philippe Coutinho gave them a 3-0 victory at the Camp Nou. The Catalans would go on to lose their subsequent semi-final against United’s great rivals Liverpool in their home competition despite another 3-0 home defeat, and would go on a sensational 4-0 crash at Anfield six days later. Since then, they have never faced an English rival again.
The 2009 UEFA Champions League final in Rome went to Barcelona thanks to a goal in each half from Samuel Eto’o and Messi. Two years later, Messi scored again between goals from Pedro Rodríguez and David Villa in Barcelona’s 3–1 win at Wembley, Wayne Rooney being United’s only goalscorer. Current captain, Sergio Busquets, and coach, Xavi Hernández, were part of Barcelona’s lineup in both finals.
United’s last win against Barça came in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League semi-finals. Paul Scholes scored the only goal of the equalizer in the second leg at Old Trafford, after United’s Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty in the first leg at the Camp Nou.
Barça have never lost at home to United (W3 D2), keeping four clean sheets in four of those five games, with the exception of a 3-3 draw in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League group stage, when the team Alex Ferguson’s eliminated to become champions by beating Bayern 2-1 in the final at the Camp Nou.
United’s heaviest UEFA Champions League defeat also came there, a 4-0 defeat by Barcelona in the 1994/95 group stage, in which Hristo Stoichkov scored twice.
United beat Barcelona in the 1991 Cup Winners’ Cup final in Rotterdam. Former Barcelona striker Mark Hughes scored both goals in the 2-1 win.
The Catalan side have a winning record in their previous 76 meetings against English clubs in UEFA competition (W36 D21 D19). At home, the record is 22 wins, 11 draws and 2 draws, the only two defeats inflicted by Liverpool, the most recent in the first leg of the round of 16 of the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League (1-2); they are unbeaten in their next 13 games against visitors in the Premier League (W9 D4).
Barcelona’s combined record in the European Qualifiers two legs against English sides is W15 L11, while United’s record against Spanish sides is W8 L10.
The “Red Devils” have won just 19 of their 68 matches against Spanish sides and just six of the 30 they’ve played in Spain (D12, L12), although three of them have occurred in their last four away games (one draw), including their last European match in November, when they beat Real Sociedad 1-0 in San Sebastián courtesy of Alejandro Garnacho’s 17th-minute goal.
United’s last five European seasons have been at the hands of Spanish sides, as was the case at Atlético Madrid, who knocked them out in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League last season (1-1 away, 1-0 home).
fitness
Barcelona
Barcelona finished runners-up to Real Madrid in 2021/22 Liga, taking them to three years without a league title, their longest run since the early 2000s. The five-times European champions have failed to top their UEFA Champions League League for the first time since 2000/01.
This season, Barça were once again eliminated from Europe’s top club competition after six games. Although Xavi’s team started and finished the season with big wins against Viktoria Plzeň (5-1 at home, 4-2 away), they managed just one point in the middle, losing twice to Bayern for the second consecutive season (2-0 away, 0-3 at home) and also succumbing to Inter, who after losing 1-0 at the San Siro drew 3-3 at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona made their UEFA Europa League debut last season, beating Napoli in the play-offs (1-1 home, 4-2 away) and Galatasaray in the round of 16 (0-0 home, 1-2 away) before losing in the quarter-finals to eventual champions Eintracht Frankfurt (1-1 away, 2-3 at home). Barça have been in the UEFA Cup 11 times but have never lifted the trophy or reached the final, suffering elimination in the semi-finals four times: in 1975/76, 1977/78, 1995/96 and 2000/01.
Barça have won just two of their last 11 European home games (D4 L5), conceding three or more goals in six of them. They are yet to win in the UEFA Europa League at the Camp Nou (two draws and one defeat).
Man. United
United finished sixth in the English league last season with 58 points (their worst ever Premier League record) and qualified for the UEFA Europa League group stage. They finished top of their 2021/22 UEFA Champions League group ahead of Villarreal, Atalanta and Young Boys, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Atlético under coach Ralf Rangnick, who was replaced in the summer by Erik tenhag.
The Dutchman’s first European match in charge of United also ended in defeat to their Spanish rivals, as the ‘Red Devils’ lost their first Group E match 1-0 at Old Trafford to Real Sociedad. However, the English side prevailed in the other five games, beating both Sheriff (0-2 away, 3-0 home) and Omonoia (2-3 away, 1-0 home), before turning around the matchday one scoreline in San Sebastián , where they had to win by two or more goals to oust their rival from first place.
This is United’s sixth appearance in the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League. They have consistently reached at least the round of 16 and semi-finals in each of the last three seasons, winning the competition in 2016/17, losing to Sevilla in the semi-finals in 2019/20, finishing as runners-up. in their last game in 2020/21, when they lost the final 11-10 on penalties against Villarreal after a 1-1 draw in Gdansk.
United are unbeaten on six European trips (W4 D2), three of which have been to Spain (W2 D1). Their UEFA Europa League knockout phase away record is seven wins, three draws and four defeats, unbeaten in nine until their most recent defeat, 3-2 in Rome in a 2020/21 semi-final second leg which won 8-5 on aggregate.
Curiosity
Barcelona’s Dutch forward Memphis Depay joined United from PSV Eindhoven in the summer of 2015 and moved to Lyon in January 2017. He has scored just seven goals in 53 games, five of which came in Europe. David de Gea, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw were some of his teammates.
Six other Barcelona players have played for Premier League clubs:
Marcos Alonso (Bolton 2010–13, Sunderland 2014 on loan, Chelsea 2016–22)
Héctor Bellerín (Arsenal 2012–22, Watford 2013/14 on loan)
Andreas Christensen (Chelsea 2014-22)
Eric Garcia (Manchester City 2018-21)
Raphinha (Leeds 2020-22)
Ferran Torres (Manchester City 2020-21)
Spanish goalkeeper De Gea, who began his career at Atlético before joining Old Trafford in 2011, is one of four players with La Liga experience in United’s squad. Raphäel Varane (2012-21) and summer signing Casemiro (2013/14, 2015-22) have been mainstays at Real Madrid, while Martial spent the second half of last season on loan at Sevilla.
Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong worked with Ten Hag at Ajax from 2017 to 2019, with whom he won the domestic double in the Netherlands and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2018/19. United’s Donny van de Beek was also part of that team.
Raphinha is a Brazilian teammate of the United trio of Antony, Casemiro and Fred; Depay and De Jong play in the Netherlands with United’s Van de Beek and Tyrell Malacia; Barça’s Ousmane Dembélé and Jules Koundé are teammates of Varane in the French squad; and United’s Christensen and Christian Eriksen play together in Denmark.
Ten Hag’s record in UEFA competitions against Spanish clubs is W4 L4, his greatest success being Ajax’s 4-1 win at Real Madrid in the second leg of the 2018 UEFA Champions League round of 16/ 19 which eliminated the current champions of the competition.
United are one of two former UEFA Europa League champions appearing in the play-offs, the other being Sevilla, four-times champions in this format. Four other teams (Ajax, Juventus, PSV Eindhoven and Shakhtar Donetsk) lifted the UEFA Cup trophy.
Barcelona are one of only two teams to return to the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League play-offs for the second consecutive season, alongside domestic rivals Sevilla.