How Barcelona dug deep to muster a thin Champions League victory over Manchester United

The Theatre of Dreams has waited long enough for a huge Champions League clash exactly like the battle between Manchester United and Barcelona. Unfortunately, despite their valiant efforts, the Red Devils will have to chase their dreams even harder next week. The Catalans left Manchester with a victory, a clean sheet and that crucial away goal that more often than not makes the difference in the very end.

Still, the hosts can take pride in a stellar performance which put Barcelona on the back foot for the majority of the game. Their woeful finishing, however, meant that the result left their fans and themselves with a lot more to be desired. There will, no doubt, be some fine bookmaker promotions available for the second leg next week.

This tactical analysis will use statistics to dissect the game that surprised us in many ways bar the end result, and kept us on our toes for the whole 90 minutes  just like a true clash of titans should.

Lineups

Manchester United (5-3-2)

Starting XI: De Gea  Young, Smalling, Lindelöf, Shaw  Fred, McTominay, Pogba  Dalot, Lukaku, Rashford

Bench: Romero, Jones, Rojo, Andreas, Lingard, Mata, Martial

Coach: Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Barcelona (4-3-3)

Starting XI: Ter Stegen  Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba  Rakitić, Busquets, Arthur  Messi, Suárez, Coutinho

Bench: Cillessen, Umtiti, Vidal, Aleñá, Sergi, Malcom, Dembélé

Coach: Ernesto Valverde

Barcelona’s setup

Having played three extremely difficult matches in just over a week, including a 4-4 goal-fest against Villarreal and an (almost) title-clinching victory over Atlético Madrid, Barcelona had no real time to rest, recuperate or rotate the squad. With all the emphasis this year being on the coveted Champions League, Ernesto Valverde brought his strongest lineup to Manchester.

The usual questions were posed before the game, and the answers provided were planned as much as they were a necessity. Nélson Semedo was deployed at right-back to inject some blistering pace to a traditionally slow Barcelona defence, and Philippe Coutinho got the chance to play against his former bitter rivals once more, leaving the recovering Ousmane Dembélé on the bench.

Under normal circumstances, the French