Scholes and Hargreaves oppose on who they want Manchester United to face in Europa League play-off
Paul Scholes and Owen Hargreaves were in disagreement about which team they wanted Manchester United to face in their Europa League play-off round next year.
United will face a side that has dropped out of the Champions League in a two-legged tie next February, with the winner qualifying for the last-16 of the Europa League.
Ten Hag’s side will discover who they’ll face in Monday’s draw, but it will be one of Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, RB Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla or Juventus.
It means there are plenty of potential high-profile clashes to look forward to and United legend Scholes would love to see United face Barcelona over two legs.
“I’d love them to play against Barca,” Scholes said on BT Sport. “It just gets the juices flowing, just gets the atmosphere going at both grounds and I think they can beat them.
“But Barcelona, on the other hand, are a really good team. They’re probably the only one who I think you’d want to avoid – as much as I want to play against them. I just have a feeling they’re going to get Ajax.
“I think those other teams, United are more than capable of beating. Sevilla have great experience, Juve are a big club but are struggling.”
His former midfield teammate Hargreaves wasn’t so excited about the prospect of facing Barcelona. Although he backs his former side to beat almost any of the possible opponents he would rather not have the trip to Catalonia next year.
“I’m not like Scholesy, I want to avoid Barca because that could be a really tough game,” he said.
“They’re all good football sides with good football managers; Juventus, Sevilla, Shakhtar. I’ll be honest, there are no easy ones. Sporting were great in Tottenham’s group. But in the end, I still think they [United] are favourites whoever they play, outside of Barca.”
