Author: Paul Wilson / Source: the Guardian
After Paris in the last round Manchester United are going to take some convincing that this result need necessarily be conclusive, and they will travel to Catalonia next week with hope. In their hearts they must know that Barcelona are not Paris Saint-Germain, however, and unless they can find a way to assert themselves at Camp Nou by seeing more of the ball and using it to greater effect they could end up with what they handed out to Lionel Messi: a bloodied nose.
Though Scott McTominay’s performance was encouraging for the home side, United simply cannot be happy with a quarter-final home leg that did not feature a single attempt on target. With Messi looking mortal for a change Barcelona were way below their best, yet were still able to keep their opponents at arm’s length throughout.
“We didn’t create chances and we were too quick to give the ball away,” Ole Gunnar Solskjær said. “We are playing the favourites and Barcelona are not used to losing at home, but we can do it if we can provide more ammunition.”No one could accuse Solskjær of not setting high standards for himself and his team. “We have to try and dominate the game,” the United manager said before kick-off, possibly causing a wince in the vicinity of Sir Alex Ferguson. Domination is not normally a card that can be played against Barcelona, as United know better than most after two painful defeats in Champions League finals. Perhaps that was then and this is now, as the ever-optimistic Solskjær might argue, yet here in the present United face a fight to finish in the English top four whereas their opponents lead La Liga by a tidy 11 points.
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