“Barcelona Played Against One of Europe’s Top Teams, Manchester United”, Xavi
FC Barcelona manager Xavi described Manchester United as one of the top teams in Europe after the two sides played out a thrilling draw in the first-leg of the Europa League knock-out round play-off.
After a goalless first half, Barcelona took the lead in the 50th minute through Marcos Alonso. However, Manchester United restored parity just two minutes later as Marcus Rashford levelled the scoreline.
Speaking after the match, Barcelona manager Xavi admitted it was a really tough game against Manchester United. He also labelled Manchester United as one of Europe’s top clubs and believes Barcelona could have won the game.
Xavi also believes both Manchester United and Barcelona are coming back to their former selves. He said: “I think both teams are more or less in the same moment, in the same position, that we are coming back. I said to [Erik] Ten Hag now, ‘congratulations’, because he’s doing very well and they are Manchester United.
“It can be a final, a semi-final, a quarter-final maybe in the future of the Champions League, but now we are in the Europa League and we are coming back. Today we showed our very best performance, a very good performance from both teams.”
Meanwhile, it was end-to-end at Camp Nou, with both Manchester United and Barcelona registering 18 shots. Barcelona, however, had eight shots on target while Manchester United only had five.
Meanwhile, the second leg of the UEFA Europa League round-of-16 play-off between Manchester United and Barcelona will kick-off at 1:30am Indian Standard Time on February 24.
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