Barcelona and Manchester United will renew their rivalry on Thursday night when both teams meet at Camp Nou for round 32 of the Europa League.
Barcelona dropped to UEFA’s second tier competition from the Champions League having failed to qualify from their group with Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Victoria Pizen.
Although the Catalans currently sit at the top of the La Liga table, manager, Xavi Hernandez has admonished his team to be on their best form against a strong Manchester United team.
“We analyzed Manchester United, and I can tell you: They are a great team. It will be very complicated,” Xavi told BarçaTV+
The host will be without two of their key players, Ousmane Dembele and Sergio Busquets due to injury. The game is set to broadcast on GOtv La Liga (ch 32) at 6:45pm.
United’s manager, Erik Ten Hag, has admitted that he would have preferred to challenge in the Europa League final
“I think Barcelona and us as well would have preferred to play this match in the final,” Ten Hag told UEFA.com. “We are looking forward to it, it takes a lot of energy searching for that finish and it will be a great game.
The Red Devils will be missing some of its key players for this clash. Anthony Martial, Antony, Christian Eriksen, Scott McTominay and Donny Van De Beek are injured, while Lisandro Martinez and Marcel Sabitzer are suspended for the tie.
Both teams have faced each other in European finals on three occasions. In 1991, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men defeated Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona 2-1 to lift the European Cup Winner’s Cup.
However, Barcelona got their revenge under Pep Guardiola when they defeated Sir Alex Ferguson’s team 2-0 and 3-1 in the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals.
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