The Champions League is back. Barça finally returns to the round of 16 of the top continental competition after more than a thousand days of crossing the desert. The Barça club does not arrive at such a decisive event in its best moment, but its rival, Naples, will receive Xavi Hernández’s men tonight (9:00 p.m.) in full convulsion. It looks as if nearby Vesuvius is going to erupt at any moment.
Barça is risking everything in the Champions League if they want to save the season. In sports, but also economically, since the budget only fits if, at least, the team reaches the quarterfinals. The pass at the Diego Armando Maradona will not be decided tonight, but a good result will be necessary to face, with maximum guarantees, the return three weeks from now in Montjuïc.
Objective: save the season
It is a face to face between the current champions of Serie A and LaLiga. But it is also a face to face between two teams that have already lost two titles and see the league as unattainable, especially the locals, sunk in ninth place. An emergency duel that will restore hope to whoever wins the tie and will leave the loser shaken, and probably sunk.
As if Xavi Hernández had few problems, he has added the problem of preparing for the match against a rival with a new coach. Francesco Calzona trained the Partenopean team for the first time yesterday and all the previous approaches, with Walter Mazzarri dismissed, have had to be thrown into the trash can. It is not all bad news and Joao Félix and Sergi Roberto have traveled with the Barça expedition, although they do not point to the starting eleven. Iñigo Martínez could enter the axis to gain experience and the Egarense will return to the four midfielder scheme with the hope that up top, Lewandowski and Lamine will repeat the rapport shown in Vigo.
In Naples, all eyes are focused on their scorer. Victor Osimhen extended the post-Africa Cup as much as he could, but he won’t miss it. If the other figure will reach the top, the Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, with whom there is also a mess, in this case contractual.
Frenkie de Jong made the match even more spicy by attacking, in the previous press conference, some media outlets for the news about his future. All this anger, all this pride is what Barça has to channel positively to achieve a victory in Naples and recover a great European night. What is missing?
2024-02-21 06:00:51
#Barcelona #Naples #Barça #Champions #League
