February 17, (THEWILL) – After coming from behind against Napoli in the first leg of their knockout round play-off, Barcelona’s first Europa League encounter since 2004 concluded in a 1-1 tie.
In the early exchanges, the hosts won the ball back high up the pitch and created the first half-chance of the game shortly before the fifth minute, but Pedri was unable to keep his half-volley down.
Soon after, Alex Meret produced an excellent save at his near post to deny Nico Gonzalez, before full-debutant Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s speculative attempt curled just wide of the Napoli goal.
Then, Piotr Zielinski sneaked in Victor Osimhen against the run of play for the chance for a Napoli opener, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen dived down low to deny the Nigerian marksman.
Subsequently, Ter Stegen unleashed Pedri on the counter, who then played one over the top for Adama Traore to chase, but Kalidou Koulibaly made a fantastic recovery challenge just in time, though replays revealed any goal would have been ruled out for offside.
Barca could have taken the lead just before the half-hour mark when Aubameyang released Ferran Torres, but his shot was poor, and they were punished when Napoli scored on the other end.
The foot of Ter Stegen saved Zielinski’s initial low strike, but the Poland international reacted quicker than Gerard Pique to the rebound to blast into the roof of the net.
That goal appeared to knock the wind out of Barcelona, who looked without vigour for the rest of the half and desperately needed to recover at halftime.
When play resumed after the interval, a VAR examination awarded a relatively soft penalty to Barcelona after Traore’s cross brushed the hand of Juan Jesus, giving the hosts a lifeline. Torres went up and tied the game from 12 yards.
Xavi’s players had their tails up now, and a crowd of over 73,000 was cheering them on. After a powerful drive from midfield, Aubameyang’s effort soared over the crossbar, while Torres’ free-kick sailed into row Z, as chances continued to evade the home side.
After Pedri’s wonderful flick, Torres squandered yet another great chance to put Barcelona ahead minutes from time, losing his concentration and dreadfully skewing his shot.
Luuk de Jong nearly clinched a memorable ending with an outrageous overhead kick with time running out, but it barely missed the post.
Next week, Xavi’s squad must win at the Stadio Diego Maradona in order to move to the final 16, which will be the minimum expectation for the team but not if Napoli have a thing or two to do about that as they showed at the Camp Nou.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
