Europa League: Man United Knockout Barca, See Teams Through To Round 16

The Europa League playoffs for the 2022-2023 season ended in a very entertaining fashion especially the tie between two European giants, Manchester United, and FC Barcelona.

Against all the odds, Manchester United knocked out an in-form FC Barcelona, Spanish La Liga’s current table-leaders, from the Europa League after a tense home and away tie.

In the first leg clash at Camp Nou, the two teams played 2-2 draw which meant that the battle would be settled at Old Trafford. And as expected, the battle was settled within 90 minutes of regular time.

The first-half (18th minute) goal from the penalty spot from Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski filled the home side with doubts and that lingered until the end of the first 45 minutes.

However, United switched things up in the second half especially after Fred gave the Premier League side the equalizer as early as two minutes into the second half.

From that point, it became an end-to-end encounter but Manchester United proved to be hungrier as Antony gave the English side the victory in the 73rd minute.

Coach Erik ten Hag and his boys scaled through from the playoffs to the Europa League round of 16 with an aggregate score of 4-3.

Other clubs that made it from the playoffs to the round of 16

Aside from Manchester United which made it to the Europa League round of 16 after defeating FC Barcelona in the playoffs, other clubs that scaled through are:

2. Juventus with an aggregate score of 1-4 over Nantes.

3. Sporting CP with an aggregate score of 1-5 over FC Midtjylland.

4. Bayer Leverkusen beat AS Monaco FC 3-5 via penalties to scale through.

5. Sevilla with an aggregate score of 2-3 over PSV.

6. Shakhtar Donetsk beat Rennes via penalties.

7. Union Berlin beat Ajax 3-1 on aggregate to make it through.

8. Roma beat Salzburg 2-1 on aggregate to reach the Europa League round of 16 stage.