Messi celebrates his goal in the Champions League final between Barcelona and United in 2011. EDDIE KEOGH (Portal)
The Europa League disguises itself as a champion. Champions League final for Barcelona. Two of the five times Barça won the Orejona they did so against Manchester United (at Rome 2009 and Wembley 2011, both with Pep Guardiola on the bench). And now the azulgrana side are looking to get their revenge in Europe after losing to the second-tier continent’s competition for a second year in a row, and meet an old Champions League rival in the Europa League round of 16. “He is the worst rival that could touch us. It’s the hardest thing on paper,” said Xavi Hernández. “Favorite Barça?” intervened Jordi Cruyff, Barça sporting director; “I don’t think so. I know people like this label a lot, but it doesn’t solve our games for us athletes.”
An incentive is added to an already brilliant duel: Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese, second-top scorer in the history of the classic (18, behind Lionel Messi’s 26), returns to the Camp Nou on February 16 in the first leg. The second leg will be played at Old Trafford on the 23rd of the same month. CR7 won’t be the only ex-Madrid player to return to Barcelona. Casemiro, who joined the Red Devils last summer, leads the midfield of Erik ten Hag’s side.
“Cristiano and Casemiro are two great players. They are all incentives that make the fan even more enthusiastic about this draw, if possible,” assessed Rafa Yuste, Barcelona vice-president for sport. “It’s a spectacular draw for neutral fans,” added Jordi Cruyff. “When you come to the draw, expect softer things. It’s difficult, but you have to face it with optimism. But that makes it nicer. They are two great clubs with the potential to win everything. United are a team with a lot of history, looking for their way. It has a stadium that makes a lot of noise. A great club,” added Cruyff, who played for both clubs, Barça (between 1993 and 1996) and United (between 1996 and 2000).
Since Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester in 2013 after 27 years and 38 titles, United have hopped from couch to couch in search of their identity. Since then, eight managers have gone through Old Trafford (Moyes, Giggs, Van Gal, Mourinho, Solskjær, Carrick, Rangnick and now Ten Hag) and the club have invested €1.6bn in 150 players. It is the fourth company to spend the most in the same period (2013-2022); However, looking at the difference between signings and transfers, he tops the table: -1,178.40m. Last summer, for example, United paid 240 million to encourage Ten Hag’s arrival on the bench. Among the most outstanding are Antony (95), Casemiro (70) and Lisandro Martínez (57). “United have grown a lot this season,” said Xavi. United are fifth in the Premier League with 23 points from 13 games, nine adrift of leaders Arsenal. “There is always a rival who will also be obliged to win the Europa League. You like that duty, that failure… It’s a challenge, the club has never won this title and we’re striving for it. We have no other choice,” concluded the Barcelona coach.
If there’s a team that knows what it means to win the Europa League, it’s Sevilla, they have six titles, more than anyone else. The Andalusian team meets PSV in a draw with an important sentimental component. The main reason is that he will return to the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven. It is in this area that Sevilla started their idyll with this competition by winning their first Europa League. It was against Middlesbrough and Sevilla won 4-0. “It’s an emblematic city in the history of Seville, whenever the name Philips Stadium sounds, Seville’s hair stands on end, our first marriage with this competition was there. But the next thing to worry about is because they are an important rival and physically very strong, enormously,” recalled Monchi, Sevilla’s sporting director.
Sampaoli’s side meet the current leaders of the Dutch league, which features Luuk De Jong, a Dutch international who played for Sevilla. De Jong signed in the summer of 2019 and left the company this summer after a loan spell at Barcelona. The confrontation between Andalusians and Dutch is unprecedented. “It’s going to be quite a tough rivalry, they changed their coach this year and with Ruud van Nistelrooy they have a great championship in the Netherlands (they lead ahead of Ajax) and a very good Europa League. Collectively and individually, they are a very good team,” added the Sevilla leaders.
PSV is a history of Dutch football that emerged in the 80s to overthrow the hegemony of Ajax and Feyenoord. In fact, they won the European Cup in 1988 after beating Benfica on penalties. Players like Ronald Koeman, Gerets, Vanenburg or Lerby played in this team. PSV also won the Europa League in 1978 and then the UEFA Cup. They defeated Bastia 3-0. Brothers René and Willy van de Kerkhof were the best players on the team that defeated the French.
Along with De Jong, striker Gakpo is one of their standout players. He was a nine-time international for the Netherlands and has already scored 13 goals this season. Simons, who caught the eye in Barcelona’s youth academy, also plays for PSV at 19. The first leg will take place in Seville on February 16th and the second leg a week later on February 23rd. The remaining games of the round of 32 of the Europa League will be played by Juventus – Nantes, Sporting Portugal – Midtjylland, Shakhtar Donetsk – Sade de Rennes, Ajax-Union Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen-Monaco and Salzburg-Rome. Betis, for their part leaders, is waiting in the round of 16.
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