Barcelona kept their Champions League dreams alive on Saturday at Camp Nou, defeating Napoli in the second leg of the round of 16 to advance to the quarter-finals. A trio of goals in the first half gave the La Liga side a 3-1 win over their opponent, providing a 4-2 overall win that saw Barcelona through to the final eight.
Lionel Messi, which had a lot on the line to enter, scored a fantastic goal in the first half to help build a 3-1 opening lead at half-time against Serie A teams. Luis Suarez and Clement Lenglet also contribute their own goals, while all of Napoli managed to respond with a penalty from Lorenzo Insigne. The score of the first half held for the 45 finals, securing Barcelona’s appointment with Bayern Munich on Friday.
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Take away
How would a first goal from Mertens change that?
Just 120 seconds into the return, Dries Mertens had a chance on goal when a deflected cross landed at his feet inside the box. The ball seemed to take him by surprise and his shot went high into the top corner of the side net. If he had just had a little more focus, which he certainly has within him, he could have put the ball past Ter Stegen and put Napoli in the driver’s seat. Would that necessarily have stopped the attack that Barcelona have shown they are capable of producing later in the game? No. But it would just have the pressure on the side of a La Liga team that has a recent history of skipping Champions League ties – the kind of position you want to be in if you’re a loser.
VAR: also used for makeup calls!
Among the most surprising decisions of the match came Barcelona’s first goal when Lenglet managed to head past Ospina. After reviewing the goal, however, it appeared that the defender had pushed the man who was marking him to the ground to open up to the goal. However, a VAR check determined that the target was valid. Despite what some may call a clear and obvious mistake, the referee was able to do something more tech needed to correct and make a judgment call to remedy his previous mistake.
A few minutes later, in what should have been Barcelona’s third goal, VAR analyzed a replay of Messi’s short-lived second goal under the microscope and found that the ball had just enough marginal contact with his arm. , making sure the goal didn’t matter. Barcelona would score the third goal later on a penalty, which also required a lengthy VAR check.
The pause did not dampen Messi’s magic
It didn’t take Messi too long to remind the world what makes him one of the greatest to ever play. His goal can only be determined as pure magic, after tripping over the box, he was able to regain his balance, retrieve the ball he was dribbling, and score incredible effort and curling as he started sliding and falling again. It was the Argentinian who did what he does best: conjure up a scoring opportunity in which any other player on the planet would fail to create even a minimum of threat.
Check out the live feed below for updates, analysis and highlights from the round of 16 match.
Barcelona 3, Naples 1 (FINAL)
⚽Barcelona: Lenglet (10 ‘)
⚽Barcelona: Messi (23 ‘)
⚽Barcelona: Suarez – PK (45 + 1 ‘)
⚽Napoli: Insigne – PK (45 + 4 ‘)
