MANCHESTER UNITED - BARCELONA

If the first leg (2:2) is anything to go by then we are in for another festival of football at Old Trafford on Thursday night. Away goals no longer apply, so the 2-2 draw in Spain last week means it is winner-takes-all as Man Utd and Barcelona face each other in the second leg of the Europa League knockout round playoff tie.

Erik ten Hag has Manchester United back in the Champions League places, tapping ever so gently on Manchester City and Arsenal’s door at the top of the Premier League. A Europa League title would be nice for either side, but these teams have their ambitions set much higher. This fixture is a chance to show the world that these two clubs are back and that they mean business once again.

Manchester United have only lost two of their last 11 European games at Old Trafford (W6 D3), although both defeats in this run came against Spanish opposition: 0-1 versus Atlético Madrid in March 2022 and 0-1 against Real Sociedad in September 2022. But I believe that their current form is much higher than in those periods: right now they are in the best moment of the season and I’d say that the best moment I have seen in a while for the Red Devils. They have been the best English team in February.

Manchester United followed up Thursday night’s draw with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Leicester City on Sunday afternoon. That man Marcus Rashford was back among the goals, with a brace. Jadon Sancho also announced his return with a goal. That game was relatively uneventful meaning Erik ten Hag had a chance to get key players some rest ahead of this Thursday night.

United have been tough to beat at home this season in the Europa League with two wins and just one loss in three contests. United will be out to prolong a 17-match home unbeaten streak (W15 D2 L0) in all competitions. Have some players in amazing form like Marcus Rashford, who looks unstoppable in the area. He has scored 10 goals in his last 10 league games and also scored the equalizer in the Camp Nou after the first goal by Marcos Alonso. Across all competitions this season he has scored 24 goals in 36 games so far, the same as United’s topscorer last season - Cristiano Ronaldo. Rashford is averaging a goal every 76 minutes for Man Utd in the Europa League this season.

On the other hand, Barcelona has a serious problem for this match. Barcelona has been flying this season thanks to their talented midfield, able to control and dominate the games, give chances to the talented strikers, and stop all counters. Their midfield has been the key to their success, and for this match they will miss the two most important players there: Pedri and Gavi. And Busquets has been injured the last three weeks so surely won’t be at 100%.

Busquets alone simply can’t afford the pace of a high intensity game in Europe like this one (as we have seen in previous games against top teams - Bayern Munich, Inter Milan…) and his lack of pace has been covered by the two young and talented teammates Pedri and Gavi.

Another key player in attack like Dembele will be out too.

In this situation, added to the ‘Old Trafford energy’, Barcelona won’t be able to dominate the midfield and either the match. And this is a big blow for them because that is how they have had success this season. In the previous game United were way superior in transition and surely in this match they will have spaces, which is where they are really dangerous. It's just too difficult for Barcelona to create clear cut chances against the biggest teams in Europe in these complicated times.

Also we must remember that according to the press near to the club, the main target of Barcelona this season is La Liga. Of course they are a big club and want to win the Europa League too, but their priority is to win La Liga.

I think that Manchester United will have control of the match. They did it during a long period in the first leg, and surely in this fixture with the depleted midfield of Barcelona will be even more drastic. For me they are favorites to qualify and I believe they’ll do it in the regular time, winning the match.

PSV - SEVILLA

I believe that the game in the previous leg (3:0 for Sevilla) was very misleading. Sevilla was ultra effective and PSV missed some chances that they dont use to miss (must remember that they have been the best offensive team in the group stage, scoring 15 goals in 6 games).

PSV is a team who feels better in high-paced games, as we saw in the first leg. They play better with spaces, as are a very offensive team with a lot of talent upfront, including Xavi Simons who is in great form, as well as Thorgan Hazard.

I’m expecting a very good atmosphere in the Philips Stadium, where the support is huge in this kind of nights, while PSV will also put a lot of pressure and pace from the first minute. They have a young squad (25.1 years old average) able to handle a high pace during the 90 minutes, something that Sevilla’s squad (28.6 years old average) can’t do due to their poor physical form and the lack of rest in their key players, due to the long list of absences during the season.

Must remember that at home in Europa League PSV managed to beat Arsenal 2:0 (one of the best teams in Europe this season).

Sevilla is the main reason for this pick. The previous game was probably one of the best in the season for them, totally overperformed in my opinion. This weekend made again a poor performance against Rayo Vallecano and must remember that Sevilla is only 3 points above relegation, which is their main target this season.

They have been the whole season dealing with injuries, so players aren’t in their best form and pace. For this match coach Sampaoli only had available 16 players from the first team, so had to call 4 youngsters from B team to complete the squad. He has a total of 8 absences for this fixture: Karim Rekik, Tecatito Corona, Loïc Badé, Marcão, Papu Gómez, Nemanja Gudelj, Érik Lamela, Pape Gueye.

They have a large advantage of three goals which probably will make them to be speculative with the match, probably starting defending because they can’t start with a high pace game as did in previous game for two reasons: lack of pace/physical ability and wouldn’t have any sense to leave spaces behind with 3 goals advantage. So they will be dominated and just try to make the time run as fast as possible.

PSV will put a high pressure which I doubt that Sevilla will be able to equalize, seeing all of their performances so far this season. I don't believe they’ll be able to make the perfect (and lucky) game they did in the first leg. I’m not sure if PSV will be able to overcome, but I see them winning this match and putting Sevilla against the ropes.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

曼联-巴塞罗那

如果首回合比赛(2:2)还算顺利的话，那么周四晚上我们将在老特拉福德迎来另一个足球节日。客场进球不再适用，所以上周在西班牙的2-2平局意味着曼联和巴塞罗那在欧联杯淘汰赛季后赛第二回合的比赛中面临胜者通吃的局面。

埃里克·黑格让曼联重新回到了欧冠联赛的位置，轻轻地叩开了曼城和阿森纳在英超榜首的大门。欧联杯冠军对双方来说都是好事，但这两支球队都有更高的目标。这场比赛是一个向世界展示这两家俱乐部又回来了的机会，他们又来了。

曼联在老特拉福德的最近11场欧战中只输了两场(W6 D3)，尽管这轮比赛的两场失利都是对阵西班牙对手:2022年3月0-1 Atlético马德里和2022年9月0-1皇家社会。但我相信他们现在的状态比那些时期要好得多:现在他们处于本赛季最好的时刻，我想说这是我在一段时间内看到的红魔最好的时刻。他们是二月份最好的英格兰球队。

在周四晚上的平局之后，曼联在周日下午以3-0全面战胜莱斯特城。马库斯·拉什福德又进了一球。桑乔也带着一粒进球宣布复出。那场比赛相对平静，这意味着埃里克·黑格有机会让关键球员在周四晚上休息。

曼联在本赛季的欧联杯主场很难被击败，3场比赛2胜1负。曼联将在各项赛事中延续17场主场不败(W15 D2 L0)。有一些球员状态惊人，比如马库斯·拉什福德，他在这个区域看起来势不可挡。在过去的10场联赛中，他已经打进了10球，并且在诺坎普为马科斯·阿隆索的首球扳平了比分。在本赛季的所有比赛中，他已经在36场比赛中打入24球，与上赛季曼联的最佳射手克里斯蒂亚诺·罗纳尔多持平。拉什福德本赛季在欧联杯中为曼联平均每76分钟打入一球。

另一方面，巴塞罗那在这场比赛中有一个严重的问题。巴塞罗那本赛季一直在飞，这要归功于他们有才华的中场，能够控制和主宰比赛，给有才华的前锋机会，并阻止所有反击。他们的中场是他们成功的关键，在这场比赛中，他们将错过两名最重要的球员:佩德里和加维。布斯克茨在过去三周受伤了，所以肯定不能100%恢复。

布斯克茨一个人根本无法承受这样一场高强度的欧洲比赛(就像我们之前对阵顶级球队——拜仁慕尼黑、国际米兰……)，他的速度不足已经被两名年轻而有天赋的队友佩德里和加维弥补了。

另一位进攻端的关键球员，比如登贝莱也将缺席。

在这种情况下，加上“老特拉福德能量”，巴萨将无法控制中场和比赛。这对他们来说是一个巨大的打击，因为这是他们本赛季取得成功的原因。在上一场比赛中，曼联在攻防转换上更胜一筹，在这场比赛中，他们肯定会有空间，这是他们真正危险的地方。在这个复杂的时代，巴萨很难在欧洲强队面前创造出明显的机会。

我们也必须记住，根据俱乐部附近的媒体，巴塞罗那本赛季的主要目标是西甲。当然他们是大俱乐部，也想赢得欧联杯，但他们的首要任务是赢得西甲。

我认为曼联将会控制这场比赛。他们在首回合的很长一段时间内做到了这一点，当然，在这场与巴萨中场枯竭的比赛中将会更加激烈。对我来说，他们是出线热门，我相信他们会在常规时间内做到，赢得比赛。

埃因霍温 -塞维利亚

我相信上一回合的比赛(塞维利亚3:0)是非常误导人的。塞维利亚的效率非常高，埃因霍温错失了一些他们不会错过的机会(必须记住，他们是小组赛中进攻最好的球队，在6场比赛中打进15球)。

埃因霍温是一支在高节奏比赛中感觉更好的球队，就像我们在首回合看到的那样。他们在空间上踢得更好，这是一支非常有攻击性的球队，前场有很多天才，包括状态良好的哈维·西蒙斯，以及托根·阿扎尔。

我期待在飞利浦球场有一个非常好的氛围，在这种夜晚，那里的支持是巨大的，而埃因霍温也会从第一分钟开始就给我们很大的压力和速度。他们拥有一支年轻的阵容(平均年龄25.1岁)，能够在90分钟内处理高速度，这是塞维利亚的阵容(平均年龄28.6岁)无法做到的，因为他们糟糕的身体状态和关键球员缺乏休息，这是由于赛季中长时间的缺阵。

一定要记住，在欧联杯的主场，埃因霍温以2:0击败了阿森纳(本赛季欧洲最好的球队之一)。

塞维利亚是这个选择的主要原因。上一场比赛对他们来说可能是本赛季最好的比赛之一，在我看来完全是超水平发挥。本周末塞维利亚在对阵巴列卡诺的比赛中再次表现不佳，必须记住，塞维利亚只比降级高出3分，这是他们本赛季的主要目标。

他们整个赛季都在和伤病做斗争，所以球员的状态和速度都不是最好的。在这场比赛中，主教练桑保利只有16名一线队球员可用，所以不得不从B队召来4名年轻人来完成大名单。本场比赛他一共缺席了8场比赛:卡里姆-雷基克，特卡蒂托-科罗纳，Loïc Badé， Marcão，帕普Gómez，内马尼亚-古德尔吉，Érik拉梅拉，佩普-盖耶。

他们有3个进球的巨大优势，这可能会让他们在比赛中变得很有投机性，可能会开始防守，因为他们不能像上一场比赛那样以高节奏开始比赛，原因有两个:缺乏速度/身体能力，并且在3个进球的优势下没有任何意义。所以他们会被支配，只是想让时间跑得尽可能快。

埃因霍温会施加很大的压力，我怀疑塞维利亚能扳平比分，看看他们本赛季到目前为止的表现。我不相信他们能做出像第一回合那样完美(幸运)的比赛。我不确定埃因霍温是否能战胜对手，但我认为他们会赢下这场比赛，把塞维利亚逼上绝路。