The Champions League is back and FC Barcelona have a last 16 first leg coming up at 9pm CET Wednesday. The Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is the venue and Napoli are the opposition, with the return leg at the Estadi Olimpic on March 12.
And to get all the very latest info in the build-up to the game, you need no further than this page, where we’ll keep you updated on everything happening in Barcelona in Naples.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL TIMES ARE CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME (CET)
Tuesday 20 February
Napoli, the season so far
Despite home defeats to Fiorentina and Lazio, Napol’s defence of the Serie A title didn’t start too badly, but it was not good enough to keep manager Rudi Garcia in his job. However, under his replacement Walter Mazzarri things got worse rather than better, and a run of five defeats in eight games saw them tumble from fourth in the league to ninth.
Curiously, just when the results seemed to be improving slightly, Mazzarri was also shown the door following a 1-1 draw with Genoa at the weekend.
Napoli made it into the last 16 of the Champions League as the second ranked team in Group C. They lost both of their games against Real Madrid but managed three wins and a draw against Braga and Union Berlin to comfortably earn their slot in the last sixteen.
Their top scorer across all competitions is Nigerian Victor Osimhen with 8, followed by Matteo Politano with 7 and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia of Georgia with 6.
Arrival in Naples
The players have arrived in Italy, and are heading to their hotel. After some lunch, they’ll be getting some rest before heading to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for a training session. At 8.15pm, Xavi Hernández and Frenkie de Jong will be giving official press conferences.
Gundo: ‘Change of coach makes beating Napoli harder’
The German international had a natter with La Vanguardia newspaper before heading to Italy. “This is what the Champions League is all about” he says. “Making big demands. I love this kind of pressure. Every game starts from zero.”
On the home side’s shock announcement on Monday, he said “the fact they have just changed managers won’t make it any easier for us. If anything, it makes it even harder.”
He also spoke about his own coach Xavi, young team-mate Lamine Yamal and how settled he feels at a new club and city.
Pre-game celebrations in Naples
FC Barcelona has its very own supporters club (penya) in Naples, the Penya Blaugrana Napoli, and they are naturally thrilled that their beloved team is coming to town once again and are hosting a special pre-game gathering for fellow blaugrana fans. If you are one the lucky people who are going to the game, the place to be on Wednesday is Campanella Pizza & Cuccina, which you will find at Via Lanzieri 39. The doors will be open from 2pm.
582 members of 90 different supporters clubs will be cheering on FC Barcelona at the game tomorrow.
Napoli change coach!
Just two days before the game, Napoli have sacked their coach Walter Mazzari after just three months in the job, following the earlier dismissal of Frenchman Rudi Garcia. Via their official social media platforms on Monday evening, the Italian club also announced that Francesco Calzona will take over with immediate effect.
Calzona is currently in charge of the Slovakian national team and reports suggest that he will remain in that role and combine it with his work as Napoli coach until the end of the season at least. The new coach is no stranger to the club as he had two separate spells as assistant coach, first under Maurizio Sarri and then Luciano Spalleti.
History on our side
This will be the fifth competitive meeting between Barça and Napoli and the tenth in total. The previous games have resulted in five wins for Barça, four draws and just one defeat in a pre-season friendly played in Geneva in 2014. Here’s the full list:
25-05-1978. Stadio San Paolo. Naples. Friendly: Napoli 1-1 FC Barcelona
22-08-2011. Camp Nou. Barcelona. Gamper Trophy: FC Barcelona 5-0 Napoli
06-08-2014. Geneva Stadium. Geneva. Friendly: FC Barcelona 0-1 Napoli
07-08-2019. Hard Rock Stadium. Miami. LaLiga – Serie A Cup: FC Barcelona 2-1 Napoli
10-08-2019. Michigan Stadium. Michigan. LaLiga – Serie A Cup: FC Barcelona 4-0 Napoli
25-02-2020. Stadio San Paolo. Naples. Champions League: Napoli 1-1 FC Barcelona
08-08-2020. Camp Nou. Barcelona. Champions League: FC Barcelona 3-1 Napoli
17-02-2022. Camp Nou. Barcelona. Europa League: FC Barcelona 1-1 Napoli
24-02-2022. Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Naples. Europa League: Napoli 2-4 FC Barcelona
The four competitive games against Barça have produced nine Barça goals from nine different players. How many of them can you remember?
A little bit of history about our Champions League opponents
Naples Foot-Ball & Cricket Club was founded by English mariners in 1905, although the modern-day Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli didn’t officially come into being until 1926. But despite being the fourth most supported in Italy, other than Coppa Italia trophies won in 1962 and 1976, they had nothing to show for their efforts until the glory era of the late 1980s when.
That was when, very much inspired by Diego Maradona and in what many viewed as a triumph of the marginalised south over the dominant north of Italy, which before then had never had a league champion club, they won Serie A in 1987, and again in 1990, as well as a third Coppa and the club’s only European trophy, the UEFA Cup in 1988.
The club went into decline after that, and was even relegated to Serie C following a financial crisis, and had little to do with the period in which Italian football dominated European football. But recent years witnessed a resurgence. Following three more cup victories, and after seven top ten finishes in ten years, Napoli finally managed to add a third Scudetto to their collection last season.
Napoli: No shortage of international experience
No fewer than 16 of the Napoli squad have been capped ten or more times for their country: Piotr Zieliński (Poland, 86), Amir Rrahmani (Kosovo, 65), Frank Anguissa (Cameroon, 56), Stanislav Lobotka (Slovakia, 52), Victor Osimhen (Nigeria, 35), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Italy, 32), Leander Dendoncker (Belgium, 32), Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Georgia, 28), Giacomo Raspadori (Italy, 24), Jens Cajuste (Sweden, 20), Jesper Lindstrøm (Denmark, 16), Mathías Olivera (Uruguay, 16), Leo Skiri Østigård (Norway, 15), Matteo Politano (Italy, 12), Mário Rui (Portugal, 12) and Hamed Traorè (Ivory Coast, 10)
Naples here we come!
The team has left Barcelona on an approximately two-hour flight to Napoli-Capodichino airport. The travelling party is being led by president Joan Laporta, who is joining the players on the flight. Various members of the board are also heading east, including vice-presidents Rafa Yuste, Elena Fort and Juli Guiu.
João Félix and Sergi Roberto back in the squad
Good news on the injury front because both João Félix and Sergi Roberto have been declared fully fit and have been included in the 23-man squad for this game. The players heading to Campania are:
Tuesday programme
The players will be heading to Naples this Tuesday morning, and the schedule for a busy day is as follows.
- 11.00am: Departure of flight from El Prat Airport, Barcelona.
- 1.00pm: Arrival in Naples and transfer to hotel for lunch.
- 6.15pm: Official press conference with Xavi Hernández and Frenkie de Jong.
- 7.00pm: Training at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
