Aheed Abrar
Barcelona draw “feels like a loss” to Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford
Manchester United star Marcus Rashford was disappointed after the 2-2 draw against Barcelona in the Europa League and claimed it “feels like a loss”.
The Red Devils visited Camp Nou on Thursday (16 February) and came away with an impressive result. Xavi’s team, who are flying high in La Liga at the moment, were put to task by the Old Trafford side in the first leg of the play-off tie.
Speaking after the fixture to BT Sport (h/t Manchester Evening News), the 25-year-old, who played as a striker with Wout Weghorst behind him, feels United could have done better in the first half. However, the England international believes the Catalans were on the back foot after the break.
“It feels like a loss. I think we did well to get back into the game, the first half was probably in favour of them. In the second half, we scored two goals in quick succession and we felt in control of the outcome, but they’re a good team with more players.”
It was an end-to-end game for the majority of the period. Initially, we controlled possession in the opening minutes. At around the half-hour mark, United had a couple of opportunities. First, Wout Weghorst missed a one-on-one with Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Then, the German shot-stopper made another impressive save to keep Rashford off the scoresheet. On the other end, David de Gea had to tidy up a bit.
The second half started with a quick pace as well. Unfortunately, in the 50th minute, Marcos Alonso had a free header at the back post from a corner and got the ball in the back of the net.
But Rashford was on hand minutes later to equalise, beating Ter Stegen on his near post. It was more back-and-forth from thereon after.
At the hour mark, the 25-year-old fizzed a cross into the opposition box. The ball eventually ended up as a goal, with Jules Kounde being credited for it. However, Raphinha got Barcelona back into the game after his long-range effort confused our defence and goalkeeper.
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The Red Devils put up a massive fight against one of the best teams in Europe this season. It is understandable to see Rashford feel hard done by the end result because we could have gotten more, considering how open the game was.
