FC Barcelona and Napoli Battle to Draw in Champions League Round of 16 First Leg

The pride of the champion. In distress this season, led on its lawn after an achievement by Robert Lewandowski, which validated the domination of FC Barcelona, ​​Naples, last winner of the Scudetto, managed to snatch a draw thanks to Victor Osimhen in this round of 16 first leg (1-1). The suspense therefore remains intact before the return leg, in 3 weeks, in Catalonia.

Xavi’s expression had difficulty hiding the immense regrets which will seize the Barcelonans, at the end of a meeting where they went it alone for a long time on the lawn of the Diego Maradona stadium. Two days after the ouster of Walter Mazzarri and the arrival of a third coach this season, the Neapolitans have long shown all the signs of a sick team, without benchmarks.

A single shot on target was enough for Napoli

Leaving the ball to the Spaniards, unable to carry the ball into the opposing half, the locals first suffered the lightning of the Blaugrana. But Alex Meret (9th, 22nd twice) was very solid to frustrate the partners of Lamine Yamal, already very present in his team’s offensive play at only 16 years old. Little by little, Naples managed to get into its match, and the last quarter of an hour of the first period was more balanced.

Barcelona dominated, but for a long time struggled to worry Meret again. It took a mischievous serve from Pedri to Lewandowski at the entrance to the area for the Pole to demonstrate his knowledge of goal and deceive the Italian goalkeeper from the right (0-1, 60th). In difficulty, unable to alert Marc-André Ter Stegen, the Italians seemed to be heading towards a logical defeat.

A wild end to the match

That was without counting on Victor Osimhen, back from the CAN and masked leader of this Neapolitan team. Found by Zambo Anguissa, the former Marseillais, in the area, the Nigerian got rid of Inigo Martinez after a borderline duel, but his oriented control then allowed him to easily adjust the opposing goalkeeper, alone in full surface (1-1 75th).

Enough to wake up his partners, very close to surprising Barcelona (85th, 89th), while the visitors saw Ilkay Gündogan miss the match point in the very last moments (90th + 5). What if Naples came to create the feat, in three weeks, in Spain? Response on March 12.

2024-02-21 22:04:00
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