MANCHESTER UNITED HAVE landed a glamour tie against Barcelona in the Europa League knockout play-off round.
The Catalan giants have dropped down into the competition after failing to get out of their Champions League group, but now provide a stern test for Erik ten Hag’s Red Devils who finished second in their Europa League group.
United will travel to the Nou Camp on 16 February for the first leg of the tie, with the return at Old Trafford taking place on 23 February.
The Red Devils have some fond memories of the Nou Camp, having completed the 1999 treble in the stadium with a last-gasp victory over Bayern Munich in that year’s Champions League final.
The last meeting of the clubs came in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2018/19, with Barca winning 4-0 on aggregate.
They have met in two Champions League finals and in the 1991 Cup Winners’ Cup final, but this will be the first ever encounter of the sides in the Europa League.
The winners of the eight knockout round play-off ties will advance to the last 16, for which the eight Europa League group winners all qualified automatically.
Having also dropped out of Europe’s elite club competition, Juventus were drawn to play French club Nantes in what will be a repeat of the 1996 Champions League semi-final tie won by the Italians.
Sevilla, who have won the Europa League or its predecessor the UEFA Cup a record six times, will play PSV Eindhoven.
Ajax were drawn against Bundesliga high-fliers Union Berlin, while Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine will play French side Rennes.
Bayer Leverkusen will play Monaco and Jose Mourinho’s Roma will take on Red Bull Salzburg.
Premier League leaders Arsenal have already qualified for the last 16 along with Fenerbahce, Real Betis, Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium, Real Sociedad, Feyenoord, Freiburg and Ferencvaros.
This season’s Europa League final will be played in Budapest on 31 May next year.
Good on you, Joe Brolly. The best pundit, bar none, on GAA.
@Kevin Hayes: Are you wise? This is the same man who brought us the Black Card and what an omnishambles that has been.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: The black card rule was to be instated before that Monaghan v Tyrone match anyway. I can remember the proposed rule being described in the match programme that day!
@Tír Eoghain Gael: He didn’t get it brought in. He famously mentioned it after that toe rag Sean Cavanagh dragged Conor McManus to the ground, but it was passed by congress previous to that.
@Kevin Hayes: and by the sounds of it Joe is now also taking Tyrone training sessions!
Spoke with one of their players privately….. So that player wasn’t expecting it to be headline news a few weeks later Then!!!!! Joe brolly a man you can trust
@Anthony: what player was it? Brolly has protected his identity so the player(s) in question can have no issue with what he has said. I’m sure Joe didn’t torture him to get him to say it.
@Eireann go brach: you’ll have to ask Micky harte what player it is as I’m sure he’s currently in the process of finding out. So you think this player said this to Joe in order to publicise this to the wider public or he said it privately most likely in passing thinking it will go no further.
@Anthony: ah come out of the fog, the dogs on the street know if Brolly was told this about any squad in the country he would announce it in a similar manner when he felt it warranted it! Mickey Harte has been Tyrones most successful manager and he should be forever lauded for what he has achieved for Tyrone, both on and off the field, but maybe it was the member of the panel that felt if he was protected by anonymity, as an individual, then this should be made public knowledge. There is a reason he wasn’t given the full extension he was asking for, will he get another extension? I have my doubts.
@Eireann go brach: he spoke with one of tyrones really good players so it’s safe to assume it’s not a disgruntled player on the panel. Agree with your assessment on Micky harte but irrelevant to our discussion. Heres how I see this ‘private’ conversation go down. Brolly and a Tp meet at a funeral, function whatever in passing. Tp :hi Joe. BROLLY : How’s Tp, how’s training? Tp: going sh!te, lost the last couple of games it’s depressing stuff, cya later.
My point is Joe has a history of over exaggeration and read any of his paper articles he’s full of tales of people he met in passing who seemed desperate to unburden themselves with information that could harm them.
Anyways we’ll see in the summer where Tyrone are, my bet is they won’t be very far away at all…
Joe Brolly also said kerry football was finished as underage were poor. How many all ireland minors and schools have kerry won since? All joe wants with his comments is a reaction
@Tomf: kerry minors are unbeaten since he wrote that! Hard to take Brolly and Pat too seriously but they donget people talking which is their job I suppose.
@niall daly: ^ do get!
@nialk daly donget sounded better in a southern deep texan drawl
What a total runt.
@Tom Collins: Harte has to go
@Tom Collins: Be worst if he told him to say chase me chase me to the ones on the other team???
Joe is a master at self-publicity. Paper never refuses ink and Joe will commit anything to writing to keep his name in the spotlight whether that is slagging off Dublin’s ‘arrogance’, Donegal’s ‘puke football’, Kerry’s ‘demise’ or Tyrone’s defensive strategy, Joe doesn’t care because it get’s people talking about….Joe. You simply can’t take him seriously as a pundit because he’ll say anything to court controversy.
Brolly is the GAA version of George Hook, Hook is the rugby version of Dunphy, Dunphy is like a farmers foreskin……
@Bryan Holmes: Don’t even know what that means Bryan but gave me a laugh anyway!!
@Bryan Holmes: holyshit can’t get that image out of my head ,
Man Joe.Way to stir the pot .
I’ve a lot of time for brolly but this obsession for Tyrone is getting annoying now
Love Joe. Cares about the game.
Has lots of conversations with players without naming anyone.. can see obvious reasons for that, just find it hard to believe half them have actually happened!
Not likely to be spoken to ‘privately’ again Joe.
Has he money on Tyrone for the All Ireland!
Joe shut up please
@Joe Kennedy: Smelly, wrinkled and full of bullshit.
It really has become hard to watch. Enjoyment sucked right outa it.