Man Utd will welcome Barcelona to Old Trafford on Thursday for the second leg of their Europa League play-off tie with the score poised at 2-2.
Marcus Rashford has told Barcelona that Manchester United “know we can hurt them” after playing their part in a brilliant first leg at the Nou Camp.
United could have won an enthralling game in the Europa League play-off round, but had to settle for a 2-2 draw. Marcus Rashford turned the game on its head, scoring and then forcing a Jules Kounde own goal after Marcos Alonso had given Barcelona the lead.
But Raphinha scored an equaliser to set up a wild finale and the two teams will do it all again at Old Trafford next Thursday, having produced a Europa League classic in Catalonia.
Rashford was disappointed to have to settle for a draw, with United missing a host of excellent chances before he slammed in a finish from a tight angle for his 22nd goal of the season.
The forward was also frustrated not to win a free-kick when he looked to be tripped by Kounde just outside the box, but he believes there is plenty of encouragement from the performance ahead of the return leg.
“I feel like in the circumstances today it’s disappointing, I felt that we were in good shape and we were hurting them,” he told MUTV.
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“It’s a massive moment for me at 2-1, it’s a foul, it’s outside the box. It’s a red card and it changes the dynamics of the game. I don’t understand why the referee thinks that I’m going down. I’m one-on-one with the ‘keeper, there’s no gain for me to go down, so I’m confused with that decision.
“We have to move on now. [This] is a result that we can take back. We can definitely take back the performance. We have a league game in between but for the next game we know we can hurt them.
“I thought they started the game really well. They were in good control and possession. We had moments in the first half but not really as many clear-cut chances.
“Just good moments that could have been great opportunities. From the first couple of minutes, Bruno’s ball across the face of goal is a massive chance and it ends up not really a chance because no one’s there, but in reality, it’s a massive opportunity for us and we just have to gamble more and try and get in front of the goalkeeper and the six-yard box for tap-ins.
“It’s big moments that made the difference and I feel like especially in the second half we took them, but in the first half, we probably could have could have done more. But they’re a top team, we got what we expected today in terms of their playing style, and what they’ve got and it’s a good performance from us. One to build on and improve on.”
Rashford’s crisp, low finish was too powerful for Marc-Andre ter Stegen, but the 25-year-old revealed he only really had a couple of options as he latched on to Fred’s through ball.
“To be honest, I didn’t have that many options in terms of type of finishes. It’s either, go high to the near post or go low and I just felt maybe more of a chance going low from that angle,” he said.
“I just made my mind up and just ran through it and thankfully it went in.”
