Barça vs Man Utd: Preview

Following a horrible first leg and a great result, Barça hope for a much better second leg and another great result to reach the Champions League quarterfinals

FC Barcelona vs Manchester United

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Competition/Round: 2018-19 UEFA Champions League, Quarterfinals, Second Leg

First Leg Result: Barcelona 1-0 Manchester United

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Rafinha, Thomas Vermaelen, Jean-Clair Todibo, Jeison Murillo, Kevin-Prince Boateng

Man United Outs & Doubts: Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Eric Bailly, Antonio Valencia (out)

Date/Time: Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 9pm CET, 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Wednesday)

Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Referee: Felix Brych (GER)

How to watch on TV: TNT (USA), BT Sport 2 (UK), SuperSport 5 (Nigeria), SONY TEN 2 (India), Movistar Liga de Campeones (Spain), others

How to stream: B/R Live (USA), BT Sport Live (UK), DAZN (Canada), Movistar+ (Spain), others

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Following a nice performance from the reserves and a draw against Huesca at the weekend, Barcelona return to action on Tuesday when they welcome Manchester United to Camp Nou for the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal matchup. The Blaugrana won the first leg 1-0 at Old Trafford in what was the most unwatchable and terrible game of the season, so their goal on Tuesday is not only qualifying for the semifinal, but putting on a better performance.

This has been the sentiment from every Barça player who spoke after the game and also manager Ernesto Valverde in his pre-match press conference, so the early signs are encouraging. Also encouraging is the fact that Barça were fantastic in the first 15 minutes in Manchester and eventually lost their dominance thanks to a combination of great pressing from United and poor passing from the Blaugrana.

United will press again at Camp Nou since they need at least one goal to have hope in this one, and it’s up to the Barça midfield to perform much better than they did in the first leg and help the Blaugrana beat the press and find themselves in great scoring positions. Lionel Messi is also expected to play better after having a week to recover from Chris Smalling’s completely and utterly accidental arm to the face (wink wink), so the captain will definitely look forward to having a big night.

Barça are favorites here and should not have much trouble confirming their place in the semifinal against a team that is not very good. But that was exactly the scenario in the quarterfinal last season, and we all know what happened. Thankfully this one is at home, and this team looks better and more solid than the one that played in Rome. Hopefully they get the job done.

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POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur; Messi, Suárez, Coutinho

Man United (4-3-3): De Gea; Dalot, Lindelof, Smalling, Young; McTominay, Fred, Pogba; Rashford, Lukaku, Martial

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PREDICTION

So... We’re not gonna do a Roma here, right? Right? RIGHT????????????? Right: 3-0 Barça.