Napoli vs Barcelona, Champions League: Team News, Preview, Lineups, Score Prediction
SSC Napoli vs FC Barcelona
Competition/Round: 2023-24 UEFA Champions League, Round of 16, 1st Leg
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Gavi, Alejandro Balde, Ferran Torres, Marcos Alonso (out)
Napoli Outs & Doubts: Victor Osimhen (doubt)
Date/Time: Wednesday, February 21, 2024, 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Thursday)
Venue: Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples, Italy
Referee: Felix Zwayer (GER)
VAR: Bastian Dankert (GER)
How to watch on TV: CBS, TUDN (USA), TNT Sports 2 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), SONY TEN 2 (India), Movistar (Spain), others
How to watch online: Paramount+ (USA), Discovery+ (UK), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a dramatic and crucial win over Celta Vigo in La Liga action at the weekend, Barcelona travel to Italy for the biggest game of their season so far as they take on reigning Serie A champions Napoli in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie at the Diego Armado Maradona Stadium in Naples on Wednesday night.
Barça come into this one on the back of a massive result despite yet another disappointing performance, but winning at Balaídos is very difficult and three points away to Celta are always a cause for positivity. But they didn’t play well against a relegation candidate for the second week in a row, and there’s very little reason for true optimism going into their first Champions League knockout stage match in three years.
It’s crazy to think about the fact that Xavi Hernández is about to leave the job of first team coach and is only now making his knockout stage debut in the Europe’s top competition, and the boss is hoping this is the start of a miracle run that catches the continent by surprise and gives Barça fans a reason to smile in what has been mostly a miserable season.
The Round of 16 draw was kind to Barça and gave them a realistic shot at the quarter-finals, and they should be even more excited about the fact that this is the worst version of Napoli they could have ever hoped to face when the draw was made: the reigning Italian title holders are ninth in the table and a staggering 27 points off first place Inter Milan just 24 games into the season.
They are in their third manager of the season, with Slovakia national team boss Francesco Calzona set to pull double duty and coach Napoli to try and save their season. Calzona was an assistant during Napoli’s best seasons under previous coaches like Maurizio Sarri and their Serie A winning manager in Luciano Spalletti, and Calzona is believed to have been a big part of the tactical plans that made those teams so dangerous and fun to watch.
He knows a large portion of the squad and has a great relationship with Napoli’s biggest players, according to reports, and president Aurelio Di Laurentiis believes Calzona could provide the “new manager bounce” that gives Napoli a chance to upset Barça and give the players and the fans a reason to care for the rest of the season with the potential for a deep run in Europe.
Napoli are a complete unknown going into Wednesday’s game: Calzona is a very different coach to Walter Mazzarri, who was sacked after just three months thanks to a defensive philosophy that didn’t work well with the squad’s identity. Mazzarri changed formations and played a back five with a low block for most of his time in charge, but Calzona is expected to go back to the attacking 4-3-3 setup that worked so well under Sarri and Spalletti.
Napoli will also be boosted by the return of their top scorer in striker Victor Osimhen from the African Cup of Nations, and the Nigerian is expected to lead the line and use his scary combination of power, size and speed to cause problems to a very vulnerable Barça defense. Osimhen’s return is also good news for Georgian winger Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was one of the best players in Europe last season but hasn’t been the same this term and struggled mightily under Mazzarri and without Osimhen as his attacking partner.
Normaly a team in their third manager of the season would be an easy opponent, but Napoli are too talented and too good at home to be counted out of this tie. And they’re not facing the best team in Europe, either: Barça have struggled all season for consistency, and Xavi is yet to prove himself as a coach in the continental stage. This shouldn’t be a wide-open tie but it very much is, and Barça’s ability to escape the chaotic atmosphere in Naples on Wednesday with a good result will be crucial ahead of the return leg in three weeks.
Barça cannot go into this one thinking they can kill off the tie in the first leg, and they might not even be capable of it anyway. But a win is absolutely possible, and Napoli have never been weaker than they are now. It’s time to come together and get the job done, and make the second leg at home an easier task.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Iñigo, Cancelo; Christensen, De Jong; Yamal, Gündogan, Pedri; Lewandowski
Napoli (4-3-3): Meret; Di Lorenzo, Ostigard, Rrahmani, Mazzocchi; Anguissa, Lobotka, Cajuste; Politano, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia
PREDICTION
A new manager who’s a familiar face for the squad with an attacking philosophy looking to inject some life and confidence into a very talented team make Napoli are a complete unknown and a dangerous proposition, especially for a vulnerable Barça side that hasn’t played consistently well all season: 2-2 draw.
