Napoli never recovered from an early howler and were crushed by Barcelona quality, losing 4-2 at home, 5-3 on aggregate in the Europa League play-off.
Lorenzo Insigne and Fabian Ruiz shook off knocks, but Stanislav Lobotka, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Hirving Lozano were injured. Barca missed Clement Lenglet, Samuel Umtiti, Alex Balde, Sergi Roberto, Ansu Fati and Memphis Depay, while Dani Alves was not on their UEFA list.
The first leg ended 1-1 at Camp Nou, a soft Ferran Torres penalty cancelling out the Piotr Zielinski opener, and these teams met in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, a legend who played for both these clubs.
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It was the worst possible start, because Napoli gifted Barcelona a goal. Insigne’s short corner routine was evidently misunderstood by his teammates, because instead Barca went on the counter and Adama Traore spread it for Jordi Alba to score at the far post.
The second was a magnificent finish from Frenkie de Jong, who was given time and space to run forward and place an inch-perfect right-foot curler into the far top corner from outside the box. The good news is that the away goals rule has been abolished, so these would not count double.
Napoli repeatedly failed to play out from the back, as Sergino Dest and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired off target, but Victor Osimhen ran onto an Insigne pass and was brought down by a clumsy Marc-Andre Ter Stegen. At first the referee had awarded a free kick, but VAR confirmed the contact came inside the area, so Insigne converted the penalty.
Aubameyang had a free header on a corner, but somehow turned it wide of the back post after a Ferran Torres shot was deflected.
A corner was not cleared properly and as it was passed back around, Gerard Pique’s slightly scuffed shot dribbled into the far bottom corner across unsighted Alex Meret for 3-1.
Meret arched back to flap a Traore cross-shot out from under the bar, De Jong’s rebound charged down by teammate Aubameyang.
Barcelona did add a fourth with a wonderful passing move, Traore rolled across from the right and De Jong’s dummy let it through for Aubameyang to sweep the boot from 15 yards.
Insigne did have the ball in the net with a beautiful volley from Zielinski’s ball over the top, but he was flagged offside. Osimhen then saw his angled drive skim the far post before a high Mario Rui press won back the ball and allowed Matteo Politano to drill low into the near corner.
Andrea Petagna forced a save from Ter Stegen’s shoulder at the near post in the final minutes.
Napoli 2-4 Barcelona (3-5 agg)
Jordi Alba 9 (B), De Jong 13 (B), Insigne pen 23 (N), Pique 45 (B), Aubameyang 59 (B), Politano 87 (N)