Barcelona will host Napoli in the second leg of their Round of 16 clash at Montjuic, with something close to around 50,000 fans present, but plenty of Italian fans expected too. It’s a blank slate in Catalonia, as Robert Lewandowski and Victor Osimhen exchanged goals.
After the first leg, Barcelona retained their tag of favourites, but plenty has happened since. Here’s what Napoli can expect from Barcelona.
The current situation ahead of Napoli vs Barcelona
Not great. Leaving Naples, there was a distinct feeling that Barcelona should have got more out of the first leg after finding plenty of space early on. There’s a palpable fear they may pay for not taking advantage of it now. At the time, there was still a confidence that Barcelona would find a way past Napoli at home, and even though most commentators here are still giving them a slight edge, it looks a lot closer.
Apart from Napoli’s improvement, Barcelona have gotten worse with the injuries to Frenkie de Jong and Pedri making arguably their strongest unit now their weakest. Add into that the emotional blow of knowing they could’ve got back into the title race again, but spurned perhaps their last opportunity two weekends ago, the only real optimism is coming from the kids. Lamine Yamal continues to show that his talent is already at ridiculous levels at 16. Napoli have nothing to fear though, and especially not based on their Friday night performance against Real Mallorca, a drab 1-0 win brightened only by a genius goal from Lamine Yamal.
What to expect from the drawing board – Xavi Hernandez
Well, he has 14 first-team players available. Raphinha went off at the weekend before half-time playing in a central role, and is expected to be fit, but it gives Xavi a nice excuse to leave him out and use Lamine Yamal instead. The feeling is that it will be Fermin Lopez trusted in midfield (Raphinha’s replacement on Friday) to come in with Ilkay Gundogan and Andreas Christensen in midfield. His presence (or Raphinha’s) will be one of three likely changes, along with Joao Felix on the left the other major talking point.
The Portuguese has had a handful of excellent performances this season, popping up now and then between varying shades of fine and dismal. If he’s on it, he’s a major problem for Napoli, if he’s not, he’s a major problem tracking back for Barcelona. The big consequence of the midfield injuries is that Gundogan will be forced deeper. He’s been at his best this season closer to the box, and caused problems for Napoli in the first leg in the same fashion. With Christensen and Lopez next to him, he’ll be one of the first receivers from the back in all likelihood, negating his threat further forward somewhat.
Players that might catch your eye
The third change is likely to be Pau Cubarsi coming in for Inigo Martinez. Just 17 years of age, it’s no exaggeration to say he was by a distance Barcelona’s best player at the weekend. Proactive in his defending, smart and adept at using his physical attributes to the best of his ability, despite not being a Ronald Araujo-style physique, Cubarsi went head-to-head with two large target men in Vedat Muriqi and Cyle Larin, and passed with flying colours.
His ability on the ball is perhaps his best attribute though. Xavi has already admitted none of his other four central defenders are as good at bringing the ball out from the back as Cubarsi, so keep an eye out for him slicing through the midfield with passes.
A stat to keep in mind
This is Barcelona’s first home knockout tie with fans in the Champions League since before the pandemic in 2019, when they beat Liverpool 3-0 at Camp Nou. Quite a bit has happened since, not least the loss of Lionel Messi. Between Lamine Yamal, Cubarsi and Lopez, they have just six European starts between them, all gained this season. There are no shortage of experienced heads in Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Lewandowski, Joao Cancelo and Gundogan, but as a team, this is a new experience for Barcelona. That tends to show when the pressure is on.