Man Utd vs Barcelona, Champions League: Preview & Team News

Manchester United vs Barcelona
Champions League 2018-19
Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester
Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Kick-off time: 8:00pm GMT

Manchester United host Barcelona in the first leg of our Champions League quarter-final at Old Trafford this evening.

It will be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s toughest test since being employed as our permanent manager last month, with the Catalan club racing away with the La Liga title.

We have suffered a couple of defeats in recent weeks and our buildup to this evening’s game has been disrupted by injuries. The visitors are in much better shape than us.

Barcelona head into the quarter-finals following a comfortable 5-1 drubbing of French club Lyon in the previous round, whilst we had to pull off the surprise of the tournament to eliminate Paris Saint-Germain last month.

Team News

Manchester United will be without Eric Bailly, Antonio Valencia and Alexis Sanchez, whilst Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic and Marcus Rashford are all doubts for the game. Were the latter trio all 100% fit you would expect Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to name each of them in this evening’s starting lineup.

As for Barcelona, Ernesto Valverde has brought a 22-man squad over to England for this evening’s game. Ousmane Dembele is one of those but he is their only casualty and will not feature at Old Trafford as a result. The manager has replaced him with Philippe Coutinho down the left of their front three.

Predicted Manchester United starting XI (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Young, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw; Matic, McTominay; Dalot, Pogba, Martial; Lukaku

Predicted Barcelona starting XI (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Roberto, Pique, Lenglet, Alba; Busquets, Vidal, Rakitic; Messi, Suarez, Coutinho

Key Stats

4 – Barcelona haev been eliminated at this stage of the tournament for 4 of the past 5 seasons. Get odds of 3.8 on a Manchester United win this evening with Mustard Bet.

8 – Lionel Messi has scored 8 goals in 6 Champions League appearances this season. Back Barcelona to win 2-1 at 8.8 with Mustard Bet.

67% – Manchester United have lost 2 of our last 3 home games in the Champions League. Back Barcelona at 2.0 to win at Old Trafford thsi evening with Mustard Bet.