Champions League QF: Manchester United v Barcelona - Build Up Thread

I'm picturing a scrappy 1-1 draw at OT where we are outplayed but get off the hook, then a historic 3-2 victory away at Camp Nou. Herrera with one of the great all-time United performances: assists one, scores one, disappears Messi so completely he retires after the match, bites his own nipple off while the ref isn't looking to get Suarez sent off.

Buzzing.
 
Okey said:
Roma took out a full strength Barca last season.
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They are way better than last season though.

Dembele improved a lot, Coutinho was inelegible although he is struggling right now. Added Arthur, Vidal, Lenglet
Looking forward to it, need a really great result at home. It's doable, Barca tend to struggle around April playing all competitions and have trouble rotating. Messi plays all home games it seems.
 
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edcunited1878 said:
Like PSG, Barca have the superior players in terms of technical ability, so we'll find it difficult to get the ball off them unless they are having a poor passing/possession match...which is probably unlikely.

But unlike PSG, Barca have all the experience, patience and understanding of how to play within themselves yet hurt the opponent.

PSG was without a fully fit Cavani, Neymar and probably one or two other players that are up there...yet United still squeaked by. Barca is much more solid across the back and have Messi and Suarez, in addition to a much better system and central midfield that PSG.

An enormous challenge, but again, another great test for Barca and United. It's the draw of the round (again) for United.
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In United's defence, hopefully we might not have to play our reserve team in this one...

Rashford needs to be fully fit and back in his best form. Neither Pogba or Martial are likely to get enough ball against Barca to really get going. But a sharp Rashford will look at Sergi Roberto with an ever-slower Pique behind him and see a potential vulnerability.
 
Schneckerl said:
They are way better than last season though.

Dembele improved a lot, Coutinho was inelegible, added Arthur, Vidal, Lenglet
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Also the second leg was at Roma. They lost 4-1 at Camp Nu earlier. Same scenario won't happen this time. They'll put all of their efforts in first leg in OT and will play the return leg at their fortress.
 
Pumped for this.

Kind of seeing this whole CL run as a huge Ole wrapped bonus. So whatever happens, it's sort of fine. Plus getting knocked out by City or Pool would be way worse.
 
We’re gonna win this one. I feel quite optimistic for some reason.
 
edcunited1878 said:
Like PSG, Barca have the superior players in terms of technical ability, so we'll find it difficult to get the ball off them unless they are having a poor passing/possession match...which is probably unlikely.

But unlike PSG, Barca have all the experience, patience and understanding of how to play within themselves yet hurt the opponent.

PSG was without a fully fit Cavani, Neymar and probably one or two other players that are up there...yet United still squeaked by. Barca is much more solid across the back and have Messi and Suarez, in addition to a much better system and central midfield that PSG.

An enormous challenge, but again, another great test for Barca and United. It's the draw of the round (again) for United.
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And we were missing half our team for the second leg and injuries to Martial and Lingard messed us over in the first leg,so that excuse of missing Cavani and Neymar doesn’t mean anything now.
 
el3mel said:
Also the second leg was at Roma. They lost 4-1 at Camp Nu earlier. Same scenario won't happen this time. They'll put all of their efforts in first leg in OT and will play the return leg at their fortress.
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Yeah, playing the second leg at home is huge for them. Came back this year vs Sevilla in the Cup winning 6-1 after losing 0-2 away and of course they have their own PSG comeback.
 
We'll target Pique and hopefully we try to get him involved in foot race with our forwards. I suspect we'll play very similar to the way we played vs Spurs.
 
crossy1686 said:
Is it just me or are people talking about us as though we're fecking AC Milan?
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You're not the only one. We're being totally overlooked, right at the bottom. Even Ajax are being given more favorable odds to win it.
 
feck em, hopefully our own Jesse Messi will be back fully fit and in form.
 
We have a chance if we can feed our strikers and make use of their pace. The problem we've seen in the past is that barca press really well and control the midfield, and our strikers barely touched the ball.
 
crossy1686 said:
Still maintain we would have got the better of Barcelona in both years they beat us in the final if we'd have played them home and away instead.
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2009 for sure. The semis vs Chelsea were dismal and just plain luck.

2011? No chance in hell. Even SAF said Man Utd overachieved in 2011. Plus Shitlke 04 in the semis didn't help either.
 
It's a great draw to get, regardless off the result. If this season is really about rebuilding and shaping for the future, this match should show us where we are and where we need to go.

Regardless of the talent of our players, these guys, especially the younger players, need to experience nights like these at the highest level. It's a sharp learning curve. If we get through, it will be memorable and really put us back on the map as a force. If we lose, it will be a learning experience for a relatively inexperienced team at this level of club football.

Really looking forward to this.
 
I don't think too many people will give United much of a chance of winning the tie, same as against PSG in the last round. It's fair to say that there are clear favourites in all four QFs and United aren't one of them, it is arguably is the worst possible draw.
This will be much tougher, but it's basically a free hit so hopefully United will just go out and give it everything they have over the two games. Can't ask much more than that.
OGS need look no futher than to point to Paris to give the United players some inspiration.
Possibly having the first leg at home will work in United's favour, as worst case scenario, a heavy defeat in Camp Nou in the first leg would have killed the tie off basically.
 
I think Utd are perfect foil to Barca. With lightning quick counters, Utd can very well catch Barca on the break.

Lot of Utd fans underestimating their chances I think.
 
Nr.7 said:
I just think that Barcelona are probably the best team in europe.
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They haven't even made the final in 3 years.. They are favourites but they are certainly beatable.. Poorer sides than us have beaten them, if we are on our game with full fit squad you never know. But mentally if you lose even before you start half the game is already lost.
 
eire-red said:
It's a great draw to get, regardless off the result. If this season is really about rebuilding and shaping for the future, this match should show us where we are and where we need to go.

Regardless of the talent of our players, these guys, especially the younger players, need to experience nights like these at the highest level. It's a sharp learning curve. If we get through, it will be memorable and really put us back on the map as a force. If we lose, it will be a learning experience for a relatively inexperienced team at this level of club football.

Really looking forward to this.
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Exactly how I feel.
 
de Gea
Young - Smalling - Lindelof - Shaw
Matic
Herrera - Fred
Pogba
Rashford - Martial
​
We should use a diamond formation for this game. Try and fill the centre of the pitch. It's important that we keep the ball a lot better than we did against PSG. The full backs should not be too attacking. Counter attack using the pace of Pogba, Rashford and Martial.
 
carvajal said:
Against PSG I was confident that you would get a good result. My prediction was for the first leg where I presumed that the players would show that they are capable of competing, as a way of proving themselves after Mourinho.
It did not result in Manchester but it did look in Paris.
Barcelona have several players in a very good form, Suárez, Rakitic, Dembelé, Piqué and above all, they are a very difficult team to break.
They control the game very well and end up breaking you.
A game with a lot of intensity,pressing, on the edge of the yellow card (Roma last year) trying to trouble the play and without getting relaxed defensively thinking that they will surrender after ten minutes of siege.
The problem,the plan is better if the second leg is at home and Valverde Will be very cautious after the accident at Roma last year.
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Even if they are not as good as before they still do this exceptionally. And on top of that they have the cheat code Messi.
Only chance is they end up usually conceding chances on the counter.
 
el3mel said:
Dalot is even worse defensively. Still a nightmare.
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I think we've got to attack them - no point going defensive. Would like us to try something funky like this:

_________________DDG______________
__________Smalling___Lindelof_________
Dalot___________________________Shaw
_________ Herrera____Matic__________
___Lingard_______Pogba_______Martial__
______________ Rashford______________
 
Patrick08 said:
To be fair we dont know what we are at the moment. Psg tie we had 10 players out with a 2-0 deficit. We play a lot better when whole team is fit
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Yep, as I said, both the manager and the squad are unknown quantities. Relatively unproven at this level, and some of the players are just now coming out the shackles imposed by LvG and Mourinho. Hard to say what our true ceiling is.

Barca are clearly superior, but I do think we are a bit of a curveball.
 
I hope United don't start with an antiquated 4-4-2 like the game against Arsenal
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I think we've got to attack them - no point going defensive. Would like us to try something funky like this:

_________________DDG______________
__________Smalling___Lindelof_________
Dalot___________________________Shaw
_________ Herrera____Matic__________
___Lingard_______Pogba_______Martial__
______________ Rashford______________
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The problem will be trying to keep the ball to attack. Our ball retention skills in those big games are usually awful and we usually end with like less than 40% possession in big games, winning them on counters. Barca are even better in controlling the ball than other English teams and PSG.

It's a tricky game. It's not impossible but we'll need 200% effort and exceptional performance from the entire team.
 
Chelsea drew last year 1-1 and spurs 1-1 at the nou camp this year. ofcourse we're capable of getting result in a one off game. over 180 minutes we need some good fortunes again but we have good enough players to do something. let's see.
 
abdo99 said:
Chelsea drew last year 1-1 and spurs 1-1 at the nou camp this year. ofcourse we're capable of getting result in a one off game. over 180 minutes we need some good fortunes again but we have good enough players to do something. let's see.
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Chelsea draw was at the Bridge and it was a terrible result to get at home. They lost 3-0 at Camp Nou.
 
Imagine beating the favorites PSG and Barcelona then beating our bitter rivals Liverpool and City to lift the cup. Would be the sweetest and one of if not the biggest achievements in our history.
 
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