Coach Xavi: 'Barca was unlucky to meet Man Utd'

"Once again the draw puts us against the most difficult opponent in theory," Xavi said at a press conference on November 7. "Man Utd have improved tremendously under Erik ten Hag, with many good players."

Since leading Barca in November 2021, replacing Ronald Koeman, Xavi has witnessed the home team meet Napoli in the Europa League play-off round 2021-2022. In the group stage of this season's Champions League, they played with Bayern, Inter and Viktoria Plzen. In which, Inter is considered the most difficult opponent to play in group three. In the end, Barca only finished third in this group, after Bayern and Inter, so they had to play in the Europa League play-off. The draw results on November 7 put Barca against the team with the highest possible UEFA coefficient.

Xavi lamented: "We didn't really have any luck with the draws, when we often met the most difficult opponent. But Barca players have more motivation when playing a strong team on paper."

This is the second consecutive season that Barca have to go down to the Europa League after the group stage, after a series of 17 seasons only playing in the Champions League. Xavi said that Barca "aims to win the Europa League for the first time, because there is no other option".

Last season, Barca stopped in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, when they lost to Frankfurt in the final 3-4. They have reached the semi-finals of this tournament four times, formerly known as the UEFA Cup, but have never reached the final match.

Barca will play the first leg against Man Utd at Camp Nou on February 16, 2023, the second leg will take place at Old Trafford a week later. The winner of this match will advance to the round of 16 of the Europa League, encountering an opponent who has won this tournament.