Manchester United will face Barcelona in the second leg of their Europa League knockout round play-off clash on Thursday.
The first leg ended 2-2 at Camp Nou,thus putting things up to grab on Thursday’s night at the Old Trafford.
Both teams have been quite impressive in the home fronts with their turnaround performances making analysts to be cautious of how they place predictions.
In his own remarks, Erik Ten Hag expressed the need for his boys to put up their best performance on Thursday.
“We have to keep in the same mindset, every day we want to give a better version of ourselves”.
“Tomorrow we have to give the best performance of the season, [and] we [have to] believe in it.”
“I don’t know what [Barca coach] Xavi is thinking. Their squad has so much depth that they have players who can replace them.
“Tomorrow, it will be a very good team. If we want to win, we have to be at our best.”he said.
Xavi Hernandez on his part noted that Old Trafford holds a large chunk of his football memories,saying ‘it’s the cradle of football’.
“I have very good memories of the games I played in England, simply because it is so special to play there. “It is the cradle of football.
“The stadiums, the fans who do not stop cheering, everything has a very special flavour that is not seen anywhere else in the world.
“So imagine, it is such a pleasure for me to go back to Old Trafford, one of the best stadiums and [one of the] biggest teams in the world.
Xavi was a member of the Barcelona squad that defeated United in the Champions League final in both 2009 and 2011.
Xavi noted that his team are no pushovers and expressed optimism that the game is winnable for them.
“We are a brave team that likes to attack and always win. [This game] will not be an exception. It’s like a big Champions League game.
“For the fans, it’s a massively interesting match. For the players, [it is] one of those matches that everyone wants to play at least once in their life