Manchester United lost 1-0 at home to Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday, leaving them in a precarious position.
Match Report
Barcelona took a big step towards their first Champions League semi-final in four years as they claimed a slender 1-0 win away to Manchester United despite a thoroughly underwhelming performance.
Ernesto Valverde's men were far from their best, with Lionel Messi uncharacteristically quiet, though United failed to make the most of their periods of superiority and must win at Camp Nou if they are to progress any further in the competition.
Barca's positive start saw them produce the only goal, the unfortunate Luke Shaw deflecting a Luis Suarez header into his own net, though United looked bright for the remainder of the first half.
Although that pattern of play resumed after the interval, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side struggled to craft meaningful chances and, as sloppy as Barca were, they successfully held on to a crucial away win.
Match Events
5' CHANCE! Rashford's free-kick goes wide
Rashford hits the free-kick well but it arrows wide of the Barcelona target.
12' OWN GOAL! Man Utd 0-1 Barcelona (Shaw)
Messi chips the ball to the back post and Suarez nods it back across goal. The ex-Liverpool striker wheels away to celebrate but the final touch came off Shaw so that will surely be an own goal.
Suarez' celebrations are initially cut short as the offside flag went up, but a VAR check shows that he was just about onside.
30' Penalty shout as McTominay tackled down in the box
McTominay cuts inside Pique in the box and there is a little bit of contact from the ex-United defender on the current United star. The referee waves the appeals away and VAR will not be used to check the decision.
31' Messi left bleeding after a collision with Smalling
There was no malice from Smalling when catching Messi, but he has left the superstar forward in quite a bad way. There is blood pouring from Messi's nose and he will require some patching up before re-entering the field.
36' Amazing save from De Gea!
Smalling fails to deal with a bouncing ball and Suarez gets on the end of it. After holding it up he tees up Coutinho, whose powerful shot is kept out by De Gea's leg.
64' CHANCE! Suarez fires into the side-netting
Semedo plays a nice little ball in behind for Suarez to latch on to. The striker looks for the near post, rather than going across De Gea, and he can only pick out the side-netting.
66' SAVE! De Gea denies Alba's shot
Alba is slipped in down the left and De Gea makes the save down low with his feet. United could do with making a change as they have lost their rhythm.
83' NEARLY! Messi's free-kick saved by De Gea!
Messi's free-kick goes through the wall. De Gea manages to watch the ball all the way, despite a slight deflection on its way through, to make a routine save down the middle.
devbat52
793
Someone needs to tell Smalling that he is playing on a football pitch not in a wwe arena
Parthlm10
582
Believe me Pique was the key to this victory. I can't even describe how much underrated he is. He doesn't get appriciated even by Barca fans. The guy is like a god of defending. Just see his reading of game. And he will be the 2nd key player after Messi if Barcelona win champions league this season. Our only weak point in this game was Busquets, and he can be exposed physically easily [Bear]
73Anthony
488
Please tag this man u fan and say nothing
Jinamryz
433
DON'T FORGET THAT BARCELONA DIDN'T SCORE AGAINST MU
FreeAgent10
373
We did what we should done last year in Rome, suffer and score. It was not a great match from us but we got advantage for the next leg. Pique was the best player tonight. We can and will finish this tie off at home. Visça Barça 🔵🔴💪
MessiGirl10
359
Smalling: I know how to stop Messi Also Smalling:
GlennM
278
Someone didn't learn from his mistakes and its VALVERDE. He needs to understand that you can't win UCL games with defensive attitude. Malcom is in decent form but no adding Mfs in the game by removing forwards. If he do the same in 2nd leg. United can us .........
TonyV25
214
We need a creative Midfield player really badly... we got so many defensive minded but no one to unlock opposition defence When we had lots of possession in second half we didn't had any creative player to provide a pass in the final third and that what cost us not scoring today
temkeneth01
203
Am looking for a word bigger than park the bus, United park but a train in defence
zogemsitlhou
199
I love the way man utd played in the second half. Fearless. If i had to choose a stand out player it has to be mctominay without a doubt. 0-1 is not bad. The tie can still turn either way. That being said, vidal, busquets and suarez are serious divers😂😂. I understand vidal's yellow was poor but he dived 2-3times after that, causing a lingard yellow. And suarez and busquets?? The less said the better😂😂😂
Longlife2000
125
Not even a yellow card 😠
Ramviv
100
Barcelona thought they were gonna beat us 6-0 today, now let them wait when we go back to Baca, let them ask Juventus and PSG what we did to them when we played them in their stadiums😏
apochi_martinez
92
Drake's effect follow then 1 after the other
VanishPrasad
70
Opta stats Manchester United have lost three consecutive Champions League knockout stage games for the first time. This was Barcelona's fourth Champions League victory against Manchester United, with each one coming in a different stadium (Camp Nou, Stadio Olimpico, Wembley and Old Trafford). Manchester United have lost four of their last six Champions League home games, as many as they had in their previous 71 at Old Trafford in the competition (W51 D16 L4). Manchester United failed to have a single shot on target in a Champions League game for the first time since March 2005, in a 0-1 loss at AC Milan. Barcelona have won five of their last seven away games against English opponents in the Champions League (D1 L1), as many as they had in their first 17 such games in the competition (W5 D5 L7). Luke Shaw's own goal was the eighth Manchester United have scored in the Champions League - no side has netted more in the history of the competition.
Tiaalprstz
65
Pique kept our defence solid, otherwise flows from Lenglet and Bosquets could have conceded us a goal. Messi was not at his prime, the horrendous attack from Smalling could have contributed to his lack of motivation and impact; he seemed to be afraid of injury. Suarez is the man , he was a constant threat to Man U's defence, giving a lot of work to Smalling. Coutihno was awesome to watch , great runs with balls, he was so confident in dribbling. Oh the coach deserves credit , he introduced technical substitutions that changed the match. Before Vidal and Sego came in , we were not playing tit-tat.. Man-U was pushing , pressing hard, controlling the midfield and closing spaces as much possible. Vidal and Sego came in and revived Barca game, shut down United and minimized their threats. It was a nice game to watch. Both teams tasted each other's strength, surely the second leg will be a thrillerous encounter.
Nesaiknruy_Legend
60
The title says mediocre and I dont like United but they were far from Mediocre. For the most part this is the first UCL game where I've seen them actually match their opponent for a majority of a game. They deserved a draw at least imo and the difference in quality was what won Barca the game. Their tempo was quite slow though, if this was Liverpool I think they would have won against Barca...
Tshewangnam
13
Someone needs to tell Smalling that he is playing on a football pitch not in a wwe arena
Someone tell referee it's Refreelona 😂😂😂
RalphReyes
12
Please tag this man u fan and say nothing
[image]
he ran away [Crylaugh][Crylaugh]
FreeAgent10
12
DON'T FORGET THAT BARCELONA DIDN'T SCORE AGAINST MU
This guy is clapping the fact that his own player scored against him
Messigician9703
10
Someone tell referee it's Refreelona 😂😂😂
Calm the f down and focus on Europa League.
zaslmprtu
8
DON'T FORGET THAT BARCELONA DIDN'T SCORE AGAINST MU
best way to stop barca players from scoring and later making excuses