FC Barcelona vs Manchester United Tickets

Manchester United have come up against FC Barcelona on a number of occasions and have, on the whole, been found wanting. That isn’t to say that the Old Trafford side haven’t achieved a great deal in both the European Cup and the UEFA Champions League, but more that when they have had to face the Catalan giants, they have found themselves on the losing side.

FC Barcelona took a while to secure their first top-tier UEFA crown, doing so in 1992 thanks to a bullet of a free-kick from Ronald Koeman, who would, of course, go on to manage the La Liga side, albeit with less success than he achieved as a player.

That first European Cup title came after two losing finals, the first coming against Benfica in 1961 and the second some twenty-five years later when Terry Venables saw his Barcelona side humbled by a very defensively-minded Steaua Bucharest side.

Their next success came under Frank Rijkaard in 2006 with a 2-1 win over Arsenal in Paris, an era that saw Lionel Messi rise to fame. In 2009 and 2011, Pep Guardiola picked up two further UEFA Champions League successes, both against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Luis Enrique brought Barcelona their fifth title in 2015 with a comprehensive 3-1 win over Juventus, since when the La Liga side have failed to make as much of an impact in the competition as they would expect to.

Manchester United’s first European Cup title came in 1968, making them the first English team to win it. Their victory came at Wembley Stadium with a 4-1 win over Benfica, albeit the scoreline being something of an unfair reflection of the game, which was 1-1 at the 90th-minute mark.

It would take another 30 years for Manchester United to win the tournament again, but when they did, they did so in style. Ferguson’s side took on Bayern Munichin Barcelona and were down a goal early on when Mario Basler’s free-kick found the back of the net.

The German side had many chances to kill off the game, hitting the woodwork twice before Ferguson threw on both Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The assistant referee held up his board to indicate three minutes of injury time, and keeper Peter Schmeichel went up for a David Beckham corner; such was the urgency of the situation.

From Beckham’s whipped-in corner, the ball pinged around the box before Ryan Giggs's tame effort was turned in by Sheringham to send United fans into bedlam.

Then, barely a minute after the restart, a shell-shocked Bayern Munich side conceded another corner; this time, Beckham’s delivery was even more expertly floated in; Sheringham flicked the ball on, and fellow substitute Solskjaer fired home, leaving opposition players stunned on the turf and barely able to compose themselves for what remained of the game, which was around another minute.

Ferguson and his charges celebrated wildly, and nine years later, they got their third title, beating Chelsea on penalties after Blues skipper John Terry had fluffed his spot-kick.

FC Barcelona vs Manchester United Head-to-Head

Barcelona and Manchester United have met each other in a plethora of European competitions, the first occasion coming in the 1983/84 UEFA European Cup Winners’ Cup Quarter-Final.

Cesar Luis Menotti’s side looked to be in control after securing a 2-0 win in the home leg, but Ron Atkinson’s side battled back superbly at Old Trafford, with Bryan Robson scoring twice before Frank Stapleton scored the all-important third goal to win the tie.

The two teams then met in the final of the same competition in 1991, a game that many consider crucial to Ferguson’s reign at the club. The Scot had a mixed start to his time in charge up until he led Manchester United to an FA Cup triumph over Crystal Palace, which led to their involvement in the UEFA European Cup Winners’ Cup.

The final took place in Rotterdam and was goalless with just over twenty minutes to play, and that’s when former Barcelona man Mark Hughes came to life, scoring two great goals in the space of seven minutes. Koeman pulled one goal back, but Johan Cruyff’s men couldn’t find an equalizer, and that meant Ferguson had won his first European crown as United boss.

The two sides met in the UEFA Champions League group stage in both 1994/95 and 1998/99 before Manchester United beat Barcelona in the Semi-Finals of the competition in 2007/08, with Paul Scholes scoring the only goal over the two legs.

Barcelona were, however, set to gain a very big dose of revenge for those previous losses when the two sides met in the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League Final in Rome.

Pep Guardiola’s side gave United a footballing lesson, easing to a comfortable 2-0 win, a game that even saw Lionel Messi score a very rare headed goal. It was also the last game Cristiano Ronaldo played for Manchester United before he left for Real Madrid.

Two years later, the two teams met at Wembley Stadium for another UEFA Champions League Final, where Guardiola similarly saw off Ferguson with goals from David Villa, Lionel Messi, and Pedro, giving Barcelona a 3-1 win.

In 2018/19, the two teams met in the Quarter-Finals of the competition, and Barcelona won 4-0 on aggregate.

2022/23 saw the teams meet in the UEFA Europa League, and on this occasion, Manchester United got the upper hand, winning 4-3 on aggregate in the Knockout round play-offs.

FC Barcelona vs Manchester United Connections

A large number of individuals have played for both teams, including defender Gerard Pique, Swedish forwards Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as well as French centre-back Laurent Blanc, Chilean Alexis Sanchez, Jordi Cruyff, and Memphis Depay.

Another player to wear both jerseys is Welsh wizard Mark Hughes. The forward, who would later convert into a midfielder, started his career at Old Trafford, breaking into the first team as a teenager in 1980, though his first-team debut would not come until the 1983/84 season.

Over the course of his first three seasons in the first-team setup, he proved very effective, scoring 47 goals in 121 games, helping the team to an FA Cup success before moving to Barcelona in 1986.

Under Terry Venables, he spent one season at Camp Nou, scoring five goals in 36 appearances, albeit he wasn’t used in a central striking position much of the time as this spot was held down by the much more successful Gary Lineker.

He was then loaned out to Bayern Munich for a season before returning to Manchester United for a seven-season spell, during which he netted another 116 goals in 352 games, winning two Premier League titles as well as two more FA Cup successes and a UEFA European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1991. He then moved to Chelsea in 1995.