The Red Devils knocked out Barcelona (2-1) and qualified for the last 16 of the Europa League. Fred responded to Robert Lewandowski’s shot in the second half before Antony gave Manchester United the win.
The second leg, despite a great atmosphere at Old Trafford, was slow to find its rhythm, but the second half confirmed that this match would have been perfect in the Champions League.
Barcelona, largely in the lead of La Liga and qualified for the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, saw their dreams of a hat-trick of victories stopped dead in their tracks by the Red Devils, who had impressive moral resources.
Bruno Fernandes got the ball rolling in the fourth minute when Casemiro’s cross-shot was well saved by Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.
But in the 15th minute, the Portuguese was in the other area, pulling Alejando Balde’s arm slightly and French referee Clement Turpin had no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot.
After many small steps in his run-up, Robert Lewandowski was happy to see that David De Gea’s hand was not firm enough to take his shot (0-1, 18th).
Barça had control of the game for the rest of the first half and it even took a decisive double intervention from Casemiro in the box just before the break, after a missed pass in the axis of De Gea, for the Catalans not to widen the gap.
The Red Devils did not give up and the reward came a little more than 15 minutes from the end, when Antony’s cross-shot gave his team the lead in an Old Trafford on fire (2-1, 73rd).
Barcelona tried everything and thought they could come back to score in the 93rd on an attempt by Lewandowski, but Raphaël Varane pushed back in front of his line before the flag was raised to signal an offside.
Juventus qualified
Angel Di Maria played a big part in Juventus’ qualification at FC Nantes on Thursday 23 February in the second leg of the Europa League play-off. The former Parisian scored a hat-trick fatal to the Nantes who stop there in this competition. Even if the defeat in this Nantes – Juventus is severe for the Canaries, the journey of Antoine Kombouaré’s team was more than brilliant. The men of the former PSG coach got out of their group on the last day of the group stage and made one of the favorites of this Europa League doubt after the draw obtained in the first game.
The results
- Juventus Torino 1 – 1 Nantes
- Nantes 0 – 3 Juventus Torino
- Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 Monaco
- Monaco 2 – 3ap 3 pens 5 Bayer Leverkusen
- FC Sevilla 3 – 0 PSV Eindhoven
- PSV Eindhoven 2 – 0 FC Sevilla
- Sporting Lisbon 1 – 1 Midtjylland
- Midtjylland 0 – 4 Sporting Lisbon
- Red Bull Salzburg 1 – 0 AS Roma
- AS Roma 2 – 0 Red Bull Salzburg
- Ajax Amsterdam 0 – 0 Union Berlin
- Union Berlin 3 – 1 Ajax Amsterdam
- Shakhtar Donetsk 2 – 1 Rennes
- Rennes 2 – 1ap 4 tab 5 Shakhtar Donetsk
- FC Barcelona 2 – 2 Manchester United
- Manchester United 2 – 1 FC Barcelona
