Man United duo return for testing Barca trip

Alexis Sanchez and Nemanja Matic are part of a 22-man Manchester United squad which has travelled to Barcelona ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg.

Sanchez, who scored 47 times in 141 appearances during three seasons with Barca between 2011 and 2014, has not played since being taken off with a knee injury in United’s 3-2 victory over Southampton on March 2.

Matic, who has been dealing with a muscular injury, has not played since United’s 2-1 win over Watford on March 30.

Luke Shaw has also travelled with the squad, despite being suspended for the game at the Nou Camp after picking up a yellow card in last week’s 1-0 defeat to the Spanish league leaders at Old Trafford.

Italian defender Matteo Darmian is also in the squad but Eric Bailly and Ander Herrera have both been left out.

United will be aiming to come from behind for the second time in a row in Europe’s elite club competition, having seen off Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 despite trailing by two goals after the first leg.

Marcus Rashford’s last-gasp penalty sealed a memorable 3-1 victory at the Parc des Princes last month, although the United striker is wary of putting too much emphasis on that result.

He said: “We’ll always take confidence from that but we also understand that it’s not PSG, it’s a different match, a different atmosphere, it’s a completely different ball game.

“We go there confident but if we’re going to win it’s probably going to be different to how we did it in Paris.

“For us now we need to forget about the past. We know we’ve done it before, but all the focus has to be on how we’re going to do it again because they’re a strong team.”

Manchester United squad travelling to Barcelona: David De Gea, Sergio Romero, Lee Grant, Diogo Dalot, Matteo Darmian, Ashley Young, Phil Jones, Victor Lindelof, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, Fred, Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay, Andreas Pereira, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford

-Report by skysports