Honestly I believe that Xavi's Barcelona are in a better condition than Manchester United now. The reason why I think like this is that we all know how Barcelona are performing in the La Liga now. I know how bad they were in the Champions League as well. But the board would expect Xavi to redeem himself by being successful in the Europa League at least. Barcelona just need to show a performance whose level is close to the one in their league. I think that this would be enough for eliminating their opponent.
Manchester United have done a good job in the Europa League so far despite being inconsistent in the Premier League. On the other hand, they had only one challenging opponent in their group which was Real Sociedad. This will be their first serious challenge actually. Maybe they can find a way to win the game in Old Trafford but I don't trust them in Camp Nou. Barcelona can eliminate them on aggregate and continue on their journey.
I'm just saying something, for me Barcelona didn't want to fall in the Europa League first, but because they couldn't achieve their goals they had to be in the Europa League, for their part I think Man United has been evolving as Ten Hag has. made possible, now that Man United wants to have results, it has forced them not to leave their stars on the bench, this includes Casemiro and above all CR7, Man United if we start to review, they have much more quality in players than Barcelona, the only one from Barcelona who is very good for me is Lewa, but 1 player cannot make a difference if the team does not help him.
Yes i agree with you CLS63, Lewandowski its doing magnificent against low and medium teams but against big teams he is not doing so good, but i also think its more a team problem than a Lewandowski one.
If they dont feed him he cant score.
For my as i say above Barcelona its in better shape than Man Utd but we have to wait so much until the match and anything can change.
Yes, the fact that they play well against teams that are considered medium or low level is because the Barcelona team is used to a certain level, that certain level is what Xavi has instilled in them, unfortunately Lewa has had to experience this and like it or not, his level also drops, it's logical, you can't always be at a high level when your team doesn't help enough and the only one who stands out in everything is him.
If Lewa had stayed at Bayern, everything would have been different for him, first he was not in the Europa League, and second he was playing high-level games with a high-level team where he would always be chanting with the greatest, sometimes it's unfair to see him there in that position, I think Lewa must be sorry for having gone to Barcelona, honestly if I were him I would find a way to leave quickly.