David de Gea has admitted Manchester United did not want to draw Barcelona in the Europa League play-off.
The Europa League play-off draw was carried out on Monday morning and United were drawn against Catalan giants Barcelona, who dropped into the Europa League after finishing third in their Champions League group.
The first leg of the play-off between the two sides will take place on Thursday, February 16, 2023 at the Nou Camp.
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Barcelona are the second favourites behind Arsenal to win the Europa League this season and they were considered the most difficult opponents to draw in the Round of 32, which De Gea was asked about following the confirmation of the fixture.
De Gea admitted United didn't want to draw Barcelona but said Erik ten Hag's side will be ready for the challenge in February.
“We know Barcelona is a great team, I think they are playing well,” De Gea told club media. “Of course, it was one of the teams that we probably didn’t want to play against but if you want to win the Europa League, you have to play against the best teams and Barcelona is [one of these]. It’s one for the fans and we will try our best to win both games.
“Yeah, I think so [it's a good test]. There’s still a lot of time [before we have] to play the Europa League games so we have to be focused on the rest of the games [before then]. Of course, playing against the best teams is always a challenge.
"So we need to be very ready to play against Barcelona and to play against any team that we have to play against.”
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