Xavi on Barça-United: "It's the worst rival we could face"

Messi celebrates his goal in the Champions League final between Barcelona and United in 2011. EDDIE KEOGH (Reuters)

The Europa League dresses up as Champions.

Champions League final for Barcelona.

On two of the five occasions that Barça lifted the

they did so against Manchester United (in Rome 2009 and Wembley 2011, both with Pep Guardiola on the bench).

And, now, that the azulgrana team wants revenge in Europe, after falling for the second consecutive year to the second highest continental competition, they meet an old rival from the Champions League in the round of 32 of the Europa League.

“He is the worst rival that could touch us.

On paper, it is the most difficult”, stressed Xavi Hernández.

"The favorite Barça?" intervened Jordi Cruyff, Barça sports director;

"I do not think so.

I know that people like that label a lot, but it doesn't solve our games for us athletes”.

To a duel that was already loaded with glamour, one more incentive is added: Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese, second top scorer in the history of the classics (18, behind Lionel Messi's 26) will return 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 will not be the only former Madrid player to return to Barcelona.

Casemiro, who signed for the

last summer , leads the midfield of Erik ten Hag's team.

“Cristiano and Casemiro are two great players.

They are all incentives that make the fan get hooked, even more if possible, to this tie”, valued Rafa Yuste, Barcelona's sports vice president.

"It's a tie that is spectacular for neutral fans", added Jordi Cruyff.

“When you get to the draw you expect softer things.

It is difficult, but you have to face it with optimism.

But this makes it prettier.

They are two great clubs, with the potential to win anything.

United is a team with a lot of history that is looking for its path.

It has a stadium that makes a lot of noise.

A big club”, added Cruyff, who played for both clubs, at Barça (between 1993 and 1996) and at United (between 1996 and 2000).

Since Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester in 2013, after 27 years and 38 titles, United have jumped from couch to couch, searching for their identity.

Since then, eight managers have passed through Old Trafford (Moyes, Giggs, Van Gal, Mourinho, Solskjær, Carrick, Rangnick and now Ten Hag) and the club has invested €1.6 billion in 150 players.

It is the fourth entity that has spent the most in the same period of time (2013-2022);

however, if the difference between signings and transfers is taken into account, he leads the table: -1,178.40 million.

In the last summer, for example, to promote the arrival of Ten Hag on the bench, United paid 240 million.

Among the most outstanding, Antony (95), Casemiro (70) and Lisandro Martínez (57).

"United have grown a lot this season," said Xavi.

United are in fifth position in the Premier League, with 23 points after 13 games and nine behind the leader, Arsenal.

“There is always a rival who will also have the obligation to win the Europa League.

You really like this about obligation, failure... It's a challenge, the club has never won this title and we're going for it.

We have no other choice”, closed the Barcelona coach.

If there is a team that knows what it means to win the Europa League, it is Sevilla, they have six titles, more than anyone else.

The Andalusian team will face PSV in a tie with an important sentimental component.

The main reason is that he will return to the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven.

In that field, Sevilla began their idyll with this competition by winning their first Europa League.

It was against Middlesbrough and Sevilla won 4-0.

“It is an emblematic city in the history of Seville, whenever the name of Philips Stadion sounds, the hair of Seville stands on end, our first marriage with this competition was there.

But the next thing is the concern, because it is an important rival and physically very strong, tremendous”, recalled Monchi, Sevilla's sports director.

Sampaoli's team will face the current leader of the Dutch League, where Luuk De Jong plays, a Dutch international striker who played for Sevilla.

De Jong signed in the summer of 2019 and left the entity this summer after a loan course at Barcelona.

The confrontation between Andalusians and Dutch is unprecedented.

“It will be quite a difficult rival, they have changed their coach this year and with Ruud van Nistelrooy and they are having a magnificent championship in the Netherlands (they are leaders ahead of Ajax) and a very good Europa League.

On a collective and individual level they are a very good team”, added the Sevilla leader.

PSV is a history of Dutch football that stood out in the 80s to unseat the hegemony of Ajax and Feyenoord.

In fact, they went on to win the European Cup in 1988 after defeating Benfica on penalties.

Players like Ronald Koeman, Gerets, Vanenburg or Lerby played in that team.

PSV also won the Europa League, then the UEFA Cup, in 1978. They defeated Bastia 3-0.

The brothers René and Willy van de Kerkhof were the best players on that team that defeated the French.

In addition to De Jong, striker Gakpo is one of their most outstanding players.

International winger with the Netherlands nine times, he has already scored 13 goals this season.

Simons, who stood out in the Barcelona youth academy, also plays for PSV at the age of 19.

The first match of the tie will be played in Seville on February 16, with the second leg a week later, on the 23rd. The rest of the Europa League round of 32 matches are Juventus-Nantes, Sporting Portugal-Midtjylland, Shakhtar Donetsk-Sade de Rennes, Ajax-Union Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen-Monaco and Salzburg-Rome.

Betis, for its part, leader of its group, awaits in the round of 16.

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