Leeds United defender Junior Firpo has backed Barcelona to beat Manchester United when the two sides meet in the Europa League on Thursday.
United host the Catalan giants at Old Trafford in the second leg of their Europa League knockout clash this week after a thrilling 2-2 draw at Camp Nou last week.
The side sees two of Europe’s in form sides meeting once again, with Barcelona currently sitting top of La Liga and eight points clear of Real Madrid after 22 games of the season.
Manchester United are having an equally strong campaign, currently sitting third in the table and just five points behind leaders Arsenal after 24 games of the season.
Like with Barcelona and Xavi they are enjoying something of a resurgence under Erik ten Hag and showed as much with their performance in the first leg.
The return leg should be equally as tight but Firpo, who was on Barcelona’s books before joining Leeds in July 2021, is backing his former side to come out on top against Manchester United.
“They (Barcelona) are going to suffer because United is a team that is doing very well right now,” the Leeds defender told Sport.
“They have a player that everything he touches goes in, Rashford, but keeping an eye on Rashford, taking the ball from them and having it longer than them, I think they have it more or less dominated.
“Man, I see it as complicated, you see Barça compete in La Liga, and you see a team that is very well organised, that knows it is playing.
“When they go to Europe sometimes what happened in the Champions League happens, but I don’t see what happened in the past now.
“And I think that if they pass this tie… It’s a Champions League tie! It is probably better than many that are played in the Champions League.
“And I don’t see that they don’t have a team to fight against United. On the contrary, I think that Barça is favourite.”
