Two giants of European football embellish the UEFA Europa League knockout play-offs with their presence as Barcelona and Manchester United meet in Europe for the 14th time. Catch the action live on SuperSport and Showmax Pro.
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
The clubs are familiar foes in UEFA competition, Barça holding the upper hand with six wins to United's three and 24 goals to the English side's 15. The Liga club have also won the last four matches between the teams, including the UEFA Champions League finals of 2009 and 2011, though United have the edge in two-legged knockout ties with two successes to Barça's one.
That sole Barcelona win came in the sides' most recent tie as they eliminated United from the quarter-finals of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League, winning 1-0 at Old Trafford with an early Luke Shaw own goal before a Lionel Messi double and a Philippe Coutinho strike gave them a 3-0 win at the Camp Nou. The Blaugrana would lose the ensuing semi-final to United's great domestic rivals Liverpool despite another 3-0 home win, dramatically going down 4-0 at Anfield six days later. They have not met English opposition since.
The 2009 UEFA Champions League final in Rome went Barça's way thanks to a goal in each half from Samuel Eto'o and Messi. Two years later Messi was on target again in between goals from Pedro RodrÃguez and David Villa as Barcelona ran out 3-1 victors at Wembley, Wayne Rooney providing United's only response. Current captain Sergio Busquets and head coach Xavi Hernández were in Barcelona's line-up for both finals.
United's last victory over Barça was in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, Paul Scholes scoring the only goal of the tie in the Old Trafford second leg after United's Cristiano Ronaldo had missed an early penalty in the first leg at the Camp Nou.
Barça have never lost at home to United (W3 D2), keeping clean sheets in four of those five matches, the exception a 3-3 draw in the group stage of the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League, which Alex Ferguson's side went on to win, beating Bayern 2-1 in the final at Barcelona's Camp Nou home.
United's heaviest UEFA Champions League defeat also came at that stadium, a 4-0 reverse to Barcelona in the 1994/95 group stage in which Hristo Stoichkov scored twice.
United beat Barcelona in the 1991 European Cup Winners' Cup final in Rotterdam, former Barça striker Mark Hughes scoring both goals in a 2-1 win.
The Catalan side have a positive balance from their 76 previous matches against English clubs in UEFA competition (W36 D21 L19). At home their record is W22 D11 L2, the only two defeats both inflicted by Liverpool, the most recent in the first leg of the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League round of 16 (1-2); they are unbeaten in their 13 subsequent games against Premier League visitors (W9 D4).
Barcelona's overall record in two-legged European ties against English clubs is W15 L11, while United's against Spanish teams is W8 L10.
The Red Devils have won only 19 of their 68 matches against Spanish clubs and just six of the 30 in Spain (D12 L12), although three of those have come on their last four visits (D1), including their last European outing in November when they won 1-0 in San Sebastián against Real Sociedad thanks to Alejandro Garnacho's 17th-minute strike.
United's last five European campaigns have all been brought to an end by Spanish clubs, Atlético de Madrid eliminating them in last season's UEFA Champions League round of 16 (1-1 a, 0-1 h).
FORM GUIDE
BARCELONA
Barcelona were runners-up to Real Madrid in the 2021/22 Liga, making it three years without a league title – their longest barren run since the early 2000s. The five times European champions also failed to get out of their UEFA Champions League group for the first time since 2000/01.
This season Barça again crashed out of Europe's flagship club competition after six matches. Although Xavi's side started and finished their campaign with big wins against Viktoria Plzen (5-1 h, 4-2 a), they managed just one point in between, losing twice to Bayern for the second successive campaign (0-2 a, 0-3 h) and also succumbing to Inter as they followed a 1-0 defeat in San Siro with a 3-3 draw at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona made their UEFA Europa League debut last term, beating Napoli in the knockout play-off (1-1 h, 4-2 a) and Galatasaray in the round of 16 (0-0 h, 2-1 a) before going out to eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals (1-1 a, 2-3 h). Barça competed 11 times in the UEFA Cup but never lifted the trophy, nor indeed reached the final, suffering semi-final elimination on four occasions – 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 those matches. They have yet to post a UEFA Europa League victory at the Camp Nou (D2 L1).
MAN UNITED
United finished sixth in the English top flight last season, registering 58 points – their lowest ever Premier League tally – to qualify for the UEFA Europa League group stage. They topped their 2021/22 UEFA Champions League section ahead of Villarreal, Atalanta and Young Boys, but were eliminated in the last 16 by Atlético under interim boss Ralf Rangnick, who was replaced as head coach in the summer by Erik ten Hag.
The Dutchman's first European encounter as United boss also ended in defeat by Spanish opposition as the Red Devils lost their opening Group E encounter 0-1 at Old Trafford to Real Sociedad. However, they won all of their other five fixtures, doing the double over both Sheriff (2-0 a, 3-0 h) and Omonoia (3-2 a, 1-0 h) before reversing that Matchday 1 scoreline in San Sebastián, when they needed to win by two or more goals to unseat their opponents from top spot.
This is United's sixth participation in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase. They have always progressed to at least the round of 16 and have made it through to the last four in each of their last three campaigns, winning the competition in 2016/17, going out in the semi-finals in 2019/20, to Sevilla, and finishing as runners-up on their last appearance in 2020/21, when they lost the final 11-10 on penalties to Villarreal after a 1-1 draw in Gdansk.
United are unbeaten in six European away games (W4 D2), three of those in Spain (W2 D1). Their record in UEFA Europa League knockout phase away fixtures is W7 D3 L4 with no defeats in nine until they lost the most recent, 3-2 at Roma in the second leg of a 2020/21 semi-final that they won 8-5 on aggregate.
Source: UEFA.com