Manchester United vs Barcelona result: Antony goal settles thrilling ...

Carl Anka, Thom Harris and Dermot Corrigan have analysed the main talking points from this game, including:

• So, are Manchester United now the favourites to win the Europa League?
• Ninety minutes that sum up Fred
• Xavi’s plan for Balde worked well, until it didn’t
• Ten Hag gets his subs right
• Barca defence ok for La Liga, but maybe not much else
• Sergi Roberto deserves credit despite defeat

GO FURTHER

Manchester United 2-1 Barcelona: Ten Hag gets his subs right as Barca defence wilts

After 120 minutes of football, Rennes and Shakhtar Donetsk could not be separated in the final Europa League play-off round tie.

The French side must have thought they had won it when they scored in the second half of extra time, but they conceded a brutal own goal with 90 seconds left.

The Ukrainian side prevailed on penalties but did it the hard way, missing their first two opportunities to progress to the last 16.

Thanks to the heroics of goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin, Kevin Kelsy made no mistake with a brilliant penalty to send Shakhtar into the next round.

Arsenal are one of the teams that could draw them in tomorrow's draw.

GO FURTHER

Away From Home, The Athletic’s podcast series following Shakhtar Donetsk through the war

Erik ten Hag said Fred's responsibility tonight was to be "like a mosquito" on Frenkie De Jong, and to run in behind.

Says it was a "brilliant performance" from the midfielder tonight, and also cites his work in the first leg.

One of the Europa League's group winners awaits Manchester United in the round of 16.

Because United cannot face another English team until the quarter-final, they cannot be drawn against Arsenal tomorrow.

As the rules currently stand, they can draw Real Sociedad despite having been in the same group as the Spanish side. However, UEFA have said that rule may well change before the draw.

Here are the seven teams United can be drawn against:

• Fenerbahce
• Ferencvaros
• Feyenoord
• Freiburg
• Real Betis
• Real Sociedad
• Union Saint-Gilloise

They will certainly fancy themselves against any of those sides.

Xavi spoke to the media after the defeat: "If Pedri or Gavi had been there today, maybe it would have been different in the second half."

Those two players are 20 and 18 years old, respectively. It's incredible the impact that they have made on the team at such a young age.

Erik ten Hag spoke to BT Sport after the match, touching on how big a win this was and what he changed in the second half:

Bruno Fernandes and Fred spoke to BT Sport after the win:

"Old Trafford was bouncing... that's why we get results!!"

Bruno Fernandes and Fred give thanks to the fans for helping them come back from behind against Barcelona! ????⚫️

????️ @DannyJamieson pic.twitter.com/RvGLpmLolN

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 23, 2023

British readers can check out this video of Old Trafford's reaction to the full-time whistle here:

American readers can check out this video of Old Trafford's reaction to the full-time whistle here:

While other matches were easy to forget about amid an all-encompassing affair at Old Trafford, there were a number of other teams vying for places in the next round.

The other scores from today's European action are as follows.

Early Europa League scores

• Midtjylland 0-4 Sporting Lisbon (Sporting Lisbon advanced on aggregate)
• Monaco 2-3 Bayer Leverkusen (Bayer Leverkusen advanced on penalties)
• Nantes 0-3 Juventus (Juventus advanced on aggregate)
• PSV 2-0 Sevilla (Sevilla advanced on aggregate)

Late Europa League scores

• Manchester United 2-1 Barcelona (Manchester United advanced on aggregate)
• Rennes 2-0 Shakhtar Donestsk (Extra-time currently being played — Rennes are leading 3-2 on aggregate)
• Roma 2-0 Red Bull Salzburg (Roma advanced on aggregate)
• Union Berlin 3-1 Ajax (Union Berlin advanced on aggregate)

A clean sweep for the away sides in the earlier games, but the home teams got their revenge in the later fixtures.

Head over to our match discussion tab, attached to this blog, to chat with other fans about this huge result.

Babalawo C. jokes: "Fred...just as we all predicted...."

And he's not alone!

The synergy between the players and the crowd at Old Trafford is striking. The club have now gone 18 matches unbeaten at home in a row, 16 wins of those wins.

Erik ten Hag's decisiveness during games has been such a major factor. He's getting the most from this group of players, finding creative solutions to problems.

The spirit of that Manchester United performance, with a tough schedule against a very good team, was really breathtaking.

Erik ten Hag has overseen a total cultural reset, he’s reconnected the players with each other and the fans. And he’s now on this run in recent games where every sub he makes seems to work.

Carl Anka, Thom Harris and Dermot Corrigan have analysed the main talking points from the game, including:

• So, are Manchester United now the favourites to win the Europa League?
• Ninety minutes that sum up Fred
• Xavi’s plan for Balde worked well, until it didn’t
• Ten Hag gets his subs right
• Barca defence ok for La Liga, but maybe not much else
• Sergi Roberto deserves credit despite defeat

GO FURTHER

Manchester United 2-1 Barcelona: Ten Hag gets his subs right as Barca defence wilts

After Antony came on at half-time and scored the winning goal in this match, Manchester United have now had 19 goals scored by substitutes in all competitions this season, the most of any club in the big five European leagues.

Manchester United have beaten Barcelona in European competition for only the second time in their past 12 meetings with the Spanish side (D5 L5), ending a five-game winless run.

Tonight marks their first victory over Barca since a Champions League semi-final second leg in April 2008.

It's "only" the Europa League play-off round but that will go down as one of Manchester United's memorable nights. A comeback win over Barcelona, with shrewd managerial choices and the fans totally committed.

Varane and Casemiro have won nine Champions Leagues between them but celebrated this victory full throttle.

There are going to be questions for Xavi after this, about his selections and tactics in both legs.

It's already being pointed out on Twitter that he's won just four of 16 European games as Barca coach:

Xavi en Europa: 16 p / 4g - 6e - 6d

????Benfica 0-0????Bayern 3-0????Nápoles 1-1????Nápoles 2-4????Galatasaray 0-0????Galatasaray 1-2????Eintracht 1-1????Eintracht 2-3????Viktoria 5-1????Bayern 2-0????Inter 1-0????Inter 3-3????Bayern 0-3????Viktoria 2-4????Man Utd 2-2????Man Utd 2-1@carrusel pic.twitter.com/SAogEY03DB

— Jorge Escorial (@Jorgeescorial) February 23, 2023

Barca couldn't live with United when they upped it after the break. They really missed Pedri and his ability to get on the ball and control the pace and direction of things.

Pedri's injury in first leg was the key moment of the tie.