Manchester United draw 2-2 with Barcelona in thrilling Europa League tie

The Europa League play-off round for the knock-out fixtures is well underway, with Manchester United coming away from Barcelona with a 2-2 draw.

Manchester United started Luke Shaw at centre-back, with Casemiro coming into the side and Jadon Sancho starting his second fixture in a row as Marcel Sabitzer and Lisandro Martinez were both suspended for the tie.

This fixture was the first of two legs, played at Camp Nou in the Catalan city – with the second leg due to take place at Old Trafford in one week’s time.

To start the game off, Sancho was operating the left hand side, with Bruno Fernandes on the right. Marcus Rashford spearheaded the attack, with Wout Weghorst sitting just behind him.

The fixture started with great intensity from United, with Fernandes fizzing in a ball across goal within the first minute. However, after five minutes had past, Robert Lewandowski had his first chance, firing into David de Gea.

Barcelona certainly had the lion’s share of chances in the opening 20 minutes, with a lot of their play flowing through Gavi and Jordi Alba. Raphael Varane and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were busy.

It was almost the perfect chance for Lewandowski after 25 minutes, but a perfect nick from Varane saw the ball safely away. Sancho then had a good chance minutes later, with the ball deflecting off Frenkie de Jong.

Weghorst had pick of the game in the opening 30 minutes, with his one-on-one effort saved by Ter Stagen after a fantastic pass from Fernandes. United should have been 1-0 up.

After the initial onslaught from Barcelona, United looked much better, bar one heart-in-mouth moment where Wan-Bissaka had to make a brilliant recovery challenge after he lost possession to Alba.

With half time falling upon the Camp Nou, it was hard to call where the tie would head. Both teams had solid chances to score – Barcelona had 62% possession, but it was United who had the superior xG.

It was Barcelona who drew first blood, heading home from a corner at the back post – a really simple goal for an unmarked player. It was poor from United.

What wasn’t poor from Manchester United though, was Marcus Rashford’s finish to equal the score. Just minutes after Alonso’s opener, he replied with a brilliant finish to squeeze it past Ter Stagen to equal the score.

What happened next was magic. United took a short corner, and Rashford found himself one-on-one. After skipping past the Barcelona marking like it was nothing, he fired the ball low across goal, it flicked up off Fernandes’ foot and was turned in for an own goal by Jules Kounde.

Just minutes after going behind, United were in front and on top.

Despite United’s dominance, it was Raphinha’s cross that evaded everyone (including Lewandowski) and settled into the back of De Gea’s net with just 15 minutes left on the clock. Ten Hag’s response was to add Alejandro Garnacho to the attack in the place of Sancho with 10 minutes to play.

The final 10 minutes was absolute carnage. Barcelona hit the post, both sides were playing on the break, David de Gea was literally everywhere, Rashford was making *interesting* decisions… and with four minutes of added time on the clock, Camp Nou was bouncing.

The match, despite the drama at the end, finished with a 2-2 draw. It’s all to play for at Old Trafford.