Tuesday night at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium, Barcelona won the second leg of their round of 16 match against Napoli 3-1, earning them a spot in the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in four years.
Barça got off to an incredible start, playing with intensity for the next forty-five minutes before securing a well-earned victory and wrapping off a solid match to go to the round of eight in Europe’s top championship.
First Half of Barcelona vs Napoli
To put it succinctly, the opening 20 minutes of play were ideal. Barça came out firing, playing quickly between the lines, pressing high with cut passes, and aggressively regaining possession of the ball from Napoli.
And with the game under control, Barça produced four significant opportunities: Fermin Lopez had missed the first two, but the third time proved to be lucky for the young midfield player. Raphinha found him in the middle of the pitch after a clever play under the left arm, and Robert Lewandowski had taken two defenders out with a fantastic dummy, giving Fermin ample time and space to finish neatly and give Barça the lead.
After Barça’s defense handled Napoli’s attack from the kickoff, a second goal and a fourth opportunity were scored: Lamin Yamele found Raphinha in a sprint, and the Brazilian striker found the back of the net with a powerful shot that went inside the post. Jaou Kinsella then passed the fastest ball on the rebound to double Barça’s lead.
The home squad did a great job controlling the crowd’s and the team’s jitters with this excellent start to the game. Barça chose to play it safe and let Napoli have more ball possession. Make mistakes and generate further chances.
But Barça paid the price as Napoli scored a rare goal by Amir Rahmani to close out the half and produced a great passage beneath Matteo Politano’s right arm. Barça had lost much of their intensity in the first 20 minutes. Just before halftime, an incredible run and corner were found by the visitors, bringing them back into the match.
Second Half of Barcelona vs Napoli
In fact, Barça’s inability to hold onto the ball for extended periods of time and to retain their intensity and detail when pressing made the start of the second half tense. This gave Napoli additional opportunities to attack from behind. While Pau Cubarsi and Ronald Araujo made several vital saves against Victor Osimhen, Catalonia appeared to have made some progress by the hour.
Xavi Hernandez sensed problems with the defensive structure and attempted to force things forward by substituting Andreas Christensen (who had a yellow card) and Fermín López (who looked fatigued) in midfield with Sergi Roberto and Oriol Romeu. In an attempt to give Barça’s thin defense additional threats and to add some fresh legs up front, Napoli coach Francesco Calzona made his own two substitutions almost away.
The stronger defensive midfield configuration that Barça used allowed Catalonia to recover possession of the ball and slow down the game’s tempo, forcing Napoli to withdraw and defend their box for extended stretches of time. This initially had a good impact on the squad. midway through the twenty minutes. Yamele’s two goals nearly gave Bloggerana a two-goal lead again, but the goal was disallowed because the teenage midfielder was offside.
Yamele was engaged in some of the better moments of Barça’s assault, and Lamin really came to life in the last minutes, unleashing his skill and aggressive dribbling on the left flank and wrecking havoc on Napoli’s defense. When we got to the last fifteen minutes, Bloggerana was still the best team, but they needed a third goal to advance.
Barça advanced to the quarterfinals as Yamele blew a great chance to tie the game and prevent them from giving up the second goal.
