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The Naples, rival of the Barça in a duel with flavor to Champions

Memphis Depay, Barcelona forward. / AFP

Sixteenth

Fortune for Sevilla in the return to their fetish competition, as they will face Dinamo Zagreb, and risk for Real Sociedad and Betis against Leipzig and Zenit

Ignacio Only

The draw for the previous round of the Champions League eighth was in danger and, above all, Barcelona, ​​without football, without money and without luck this campaign, suffered it in their flesh since it corresponded to none other than Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli. A duel that looks more like the Champions League than the second continental competition. In addition, the Catalans will play the second leg at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium, always very hot.

Barça, however, have a good recent memory with Naples. With Quique Setién as coach, the Catalans eliminated the Italians in the round of 16 of the Champions League 19-20 with a 1-1 at the then called San Paolo and 3-1 at the Camp Nou in August, after postponing the return five months for the pandemic

Napoli currently occupies fourth place in Serie A after eleven victories, three draws and three defeats, but they are in the fight for the title and in the Champions zone, four points behind Inter, three from Milan and one from Atalanta. It has very good players, such as the Belgian Dries Mertens, the Italian international striker Lorenzo Insigne or the Spanish midfielder Fabián Ruiz.

It was a very cheerful, colorful team with a marked offensive character with the revolutionary Maurizio Sarri, but with Spalletti on his bench he is more balanced in defense, so much so that it is the least thrashed in Italy, with only 13 goals conceded in those 17 games played. . Much must improve Xavi Hernández’s team to overcome this trap tie.

More fortunate was the draw for Sevilla, the second Spanish club from the top European competition, as they will face Croatian Dinamo Zagreb, on a far inferior role to Julen Lopetegui’s team, although it is an unpredictable, quite anarchic team that In the group stage they were behind England’s West Ham but with ten points they finished ahead of Rapid Vienna and Genk.

Equality

Overcome by Lille and Salzburg in a bad group stage of the Champions League, the Seville team returns to its fetish competition, as it has won it six times, more than anyone else and is one of the great favorites to reach the final of the May 18 in his fiefdom of Sánchez Pizjuán.

For their part, Real Sociedad and Betis managed to avoid Dortmund and Naples, the coconuts from the Champions League, but it cannot be said either that they are very happy with what the hype was in store for. Leipzig, opponent of Imanol Alguacil’s team, is a German rival with exponential growth in recent years, although it has suffered the blow of losing coach Julian Nagelsmann, now triumphant at Bayern.

Leipzig is seventh in the Bundesliga, 16 points behind Bayern and already with six defeats in 15 games. In Europe, they fell from the Champions League in a powerful group managed in the heights by the Manchester City of Pep Guardiola and the PSG of Mbappé, Messi and Neymar, big words.

He has recently changed his coach and bet on Domenico Tedesco and is an aggressive, attacking and high-paced team. He has in his ranks the Spanish Dani Olmo, although he has a course with many injuries. If the figure of the moment is the French striker Christopher Nkunku, author of seven goals in the Bundesliga.

And Manuel Pellegrini’s team will face Zenit Saint Petersburg, accustomed to playing in the Champions League in recent years and who already won the Europa League once in 2008 by beating Rangers in the Manchester final. He leads the Russian Premier with two points more than Dinamo Moscow and in the Champions League he finished third, surpassed as he was sung by Juventus and Chelsea.

The survivors of this ‘playoff’ will enter the eighth hype with eight teams classified directly by finishing as respective champions of their respective groups in the group stage: Lyon, Monaco, Spartak Moscow, Eintracht, Galatasaray, Red Star, Bayer Leverkusen and West Ham.

The format of the draw was simple, since the teams from the Champions were measured against those that were runners-up in the Europa League. That is why Barça and Sevilla were in Pot 1 and Real Sociedad and Betis in Pot 2. The qualifying rounds will be played on February 17 and 24, so the form of the clubs can change a lot between now and two months.

This tournament has had a clear Spanish flavor in recent years with the titles won by Atlético, Sevilla and Villarreal, current champions, and with the extraordinary additional prize of playing the Champions League this year.

Europa League: Round of 32 or previous round of eighth:

Sevilla-Dinamo Zagreb

Atalanta-Olympiacos

Leipzig-Royal Society

Barcelona-Naples

Zenit-Betis

Borussia Dortmund-Glasgow Rangers

Sheriff-Braga

Porto-Lazio

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