Barcelona will welcome Manchester United to Camp Nou this Thursday as both sides faceoff in the first leg of the 2022/23 Europa League knock playoffs.
Barcelona qualified for this stage of the Europa League by finishing in third place in their Champions League group, behind Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. While that represented an embarrassment for the La Liga giants, they will want to make the most of their opportunity here.
Last season they also found themselves in the Europa League after exiting the UCL. Still, they failed to win the title after losing to eventual winner Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals.
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Coming into this tie on the back of a 16-game unbeaten run (W15, D1) shows that Barca aren’t as lousy as they were early this season or last season when they crashed out of the UCL.
Unlike Barca, who came from the Champions League, Manchester United qualified for this stage by finishing second in their Europa League group on goal difference.
They are also a team in form, having lost just once across 17 competitive matches (W14, D2) whilst managing eight clean sheets in that period.
So, they will travel to Camp Nou full of confidence despite their poor record against Barcelona (five losses in the last five head-to-heads).
Given how solid both teams’ defence is, this game could end in under 2.5 goals.
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