Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde believes Manchester United will threaten for the Champions League next season, and could even go on to win the tournament – saying he hopes his side do not have to face them in the competition.

Manchester United ended their pre-season tour of the US with a 1-0 defeat to Barcelona. After the game, Jose Mourinho said that, with the exception of Paul Pogba, United did not have world class players at their disposal –
unlike Real Madrid and Barcelona. The Portuguese made a point of saying his team are not on the same level as the Spanish duo, and this is widely backed by most viewers of the Premier League.

However, Barca coach Valverde was impressed by what he saw from United, and he insists that they will be a force in both the Champions League and Premier League next term.

“I am happy that we won against a powerful team such as Manchester United,” Valverde said. “Obviously it hasn’t gone well lately (for United), but they won the Europa League.”

“This year they are going to be in the Champions League and their presence by itself is impressive. I think they are going to be a really hard team to beat.”

“For me, they are contenders to win and they are going to be hard to beat in the Premier League and the Champions League. I wouldn’t want to face them in the Champions League.” [Quotes via Telegraph]

United are a team in transition, and with the additions they are slowly but surely making, hopefully they can make some sort of push for both the competitions mentioned above.

In addition to United returning to the Champions League, Jose Mourinho’s old club Chelsea are also returning to the world’s premier club competition. It is well known how much Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich cherished the competition and he has authorised a massive budget for Antonio Conte to reinforce his squad clearly with an eye on the Champions League prize. So if Chelsea do as well as they are bviously planning to do and Man United perform as well in the Champions League as the new Barcelona coach feels they can then we might be in for a repeat of the 2008 Final played in Moscow where United won on penalties claiming their 3rd Champions League trophy.