Manchester United and Barcelona meet in the Europa League for the first time on Thursday as two of the competition's favourites face off in the knockout round play-offs.
While it may be United's first experience of this recently introduced round, which pits the runners-up from the Europa League group stage with the third-placed teams dropping down from the Champions League group stage, Barcelona do have previous from last season. In the first campaign since its introduction, Xavi's side beat Napoli to reach the round of 16, and also advanced against Galatasaray from there, before being eliminated by the eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals.
Erik ten Hag's team travelling to the Catalan capital means it is consecutive European away trips to Spain after concluding Group E with a visit to Real Sociedad. Only winning 1-0 in San Sebastian, coupled with United's inferior goal difference, is the reason that they're even playing against Barcelona at this stage of the competition in the first place.
