Manchester United already knows how to lock Luis Suarez in Barcelona

On Tuesday night, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will return to the field that has no doubt defined his playing career at Manchester United, while Camp Nou set the stage in 1999, and that he will do so this week.

But this time, Solskjaer will occupy the position of director of the group that has been successful on this famous night against Bayern Munich.

United made its entry into this week's game as big underdogs, given the current state of opposition, the site, and the fact that Erneste Valverde's team maintained a 1-0 lead in the first leg at Old Trafford.

The required return is reminiscent of what was needed 20 years ago, but will Solskjaer be able to manufacture the goods again?

To do this, the task will become much more realistic if United manages to cancel the Barcelona attack. This is obviously easier said than done, but it is plausible when you consider the progress of the first step. The story surrounds Lionel Messi and explains how special efforts must be made to prevent its quality from affecting the game.

The problem, however, was that despite Messi's relatively poor performance, Barcelona still managed to score largely thanks to his second-best striker, Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan striker has a history with United and he demonstrated it at a party.

How then can United ensure that Suarez remains silent alongside Messi? The somewhat surprising answer is to use much of the same tactical approach, certainly in some aspects.

Facing players such as Messi and Suarez has many disadvantages and very few positives. One of these positives, though, is that they are not the fastest. Suarez is now 32 years old and, although he is not particularly slow, it does not pose a daunting threat when he grants a place behind it.

This has influenced United's defensive confidence over the night as an ambitious line was deployed, allowing United to remain compact from behind, as shown below.

This then limited the space in which Messi could play, which consequently cut off much of Suarez's supply. Often, this is not a problem for Barcelona because of its use of Jordi Alba, which, unlike Suarez and Messi, could certainly be considered fast and threatening if space allowed.

Valverde, however, largely opted not to deploy Alba in the forward zone, as he had to be cautious in preventing United from counterattacking via Marcus Rashford. As a result, the second leg can be a case of stick or twist with regard to. Will Valverde allow Alba to advance, but will he give up space for Rashford, or will he play safe with Alba to make United's threat go away?

It is impossible to predict at this point, but the more United's attack will be effective and efficient, the more Alba will become more reserved, which will have a coaching effect related to the fact that United can then be compact around Suarez and Messi, with an example. photo below.

In the end, the tactical aspects seem perfectly balanced, but United can certainly play on the general lack of pace of the Barcelona attack.

Alba is heavily involved in adapting Barcelona to this problem, but although he is ahead, Rashford may cause problems during the break.

Overall, despite the result, United did not do much harm in the first leg and, if they get the same result, Barcelona strikers may suffer again their frustration.