Erik ten Hag confirms the return of two stars for Manchester United’s crucial clash with Barcelona, hinting at an unexpected tactical change

Erik ten Hag has con­firmed that Har­ry Maguire and Antho­ny are expect­ed to return to action against Barcelona tomor­row night.

Man­ches­ter Unit­ed are trail­ing the La Liga lead­ers 2–2 in the sec­ond leg of the Europa League play-offs.

The Red Dev­ils are hop­ing to see two top-team play­ers return as they move into the last 16.

And 53-year-old Ten Hag even hint­ed at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a tac­ti­cal surprise.

He expects Maguire and Antho­ny to return.

“Antho­ny Mar­tial is unavail­able. He is back on the pitch and we are wait­ing for team training.

“He’s back on the pitch wait­ing for team train­ing. We have an idea.

Antho­ny, 22, has not played since Feb­ru­ary 4’s 2–1 win over Crys­tal Palace.

Mean­while, cap­tain Maguire was absent from last Sun­day’s 3–0 win over for­mer club Leicester.

Ten Hag also has Scott McTom­i­nay, who returned after play­ing the final 31 min­utes of the week­end’s win against the Foxes.

The Dutch­man believes he needs to play his best game of the sea­son to beat Barcelona.

We have to put in our best per­for­mance this sea­son and I believe in it and I’m look­ing for­ward to it.

“At Old Traf­ford, two great teams face off in a heavy atmosphere.

With the Carabao Cup final just around the cor­ner, Ten­hag will need to find the right bal­ance for their squad to suc­ceed in both competitions.

A mas­ter at mak­ing it hap­pen is Alex Fer­gu­son, and Ten­hag had din­ner with the great Scots­man this week.

Asked about his con­ver­sa­tion with Sir Alex, the Red Dev­il boss said, “He wants to share it:” He wants to share it, he wants to help, he wants to sup­port. Man­ches­ter Unit­ed is his club and he feels very dedicated. ”

“He wants us to do well. It was a great night.”

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