Barcelona’s players are convinced that if three more of their stars were available to play Man United, they would have advanced to the round of 16 of the Europa League, according to reports.
Antony’s second-half goal on Thursday night gave the Red Devils the advantage they needed to overcome their Spanish opponents and seal a 4-3 victory overall over the two legs of their last-32 match.
Antony’s winner against Barcelona from the stands 🤩🔴
(via mufchants/TT) pic.twitter.com/SRakUyWyTd
— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) February 23, 2023
After a 2-2 draw in the first leg last week at the Nou Camp, Barcelona took the lead early in the second leg at Old Trafford thanks to a Robert Lewandowski penalty.
However, goals from Fred and Antony sent United through to the next round.
The occasion also saw Barcelona dumped out of the Europa League for the second season in a row but their players are said to be ‘convinced’ that things would have gone differently if they had three extra players available for selection.
According to Sport, the belief among the team’s players is that Barcelona would have triumphed if Gavi, Pedri, and Ousmane Dembele had faced Man United on Thursday night.
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Gavi was suspended for the match due to an accumulation of yellow cards, while Pedri and Dembele were nursing injuries that ruled them out of contention to appear in the fixture.
It is also said that Barcelona’s players were generally pleased with their efforts against United in spite of their obvious disappointment at being eliminated from the Europa League in the first knockout round.
They believe that football has been ‘very cruel’ to them over the course of this season and feel they were unlucky to be drawn into a difficult Champions League group before coming up against United in Europe’s second-tier club competition.
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