Napoli fight back to draw 1-1 with Barcelona in Champions League
On Wednesday night in Italy, Napoli and Barcelona tied 1-1 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 match. On Wednesday, Napoli rallied back to draw 1-1 with Barcelona in the opening leg of their league’s last-16 encounter, thanks to a goal from Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen.
Last year’s Spanish and Italian champions, both suffering this season, had a dismal first half before Poland striker Robert Lewandowski gave Barcelona the lead in the 60th minute.
This was Napoli’s first game since replacing manager Walter Mazzarri with Francesco Calzona. Robert Lewandowski became the first Barcelona player since Lionel Messi in 2021 to score in a UCL knockout match, putting the away side ahead after an hour.
Barcelona’s aggressive pressing irritated Napoli because it caused them to miss easy passes and hand the ball over to the opponents, who also seemed to be at a loss for what to do with it.
Lamine Yamal, a teenager who at 16 years and 223 days became the youngest player to compete in the Champions League knockout round, also tried to score the tournament’s youngest goal, but his early shots were wide and Alex Meret saved one of his long-range attempts. Lewandowski now has 93 UCL goals, trailing only Messi (129) and Cristiano Ronaldo (140) throughout European Cup history. Napoli responded in the 75th minute, with Victor Osimhen scoring his first club goal of 2024 in his first appearance since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations.
The second leg will take place in Spain on March 12th.
On Wednesday, Lamine Yamal had a record-breaking appearance for Barcelona, playing 80 minutes. The teenager, who played 223 days after turning 16, is now the youngest footballer in UCL history to appear in a knockout phase game. Rodrigo Ribeiro previously held the record, having played for Sporting Lisbon against Manchester City in March 2022 at the age of 16 years and 315 days.
Post-Match Facts: Napoli 1-1 Barcelona |Napoli fight back to draw with Barcelona in Champions League
Napoli is still winless versus Barcelona in European play (D3 L2), and they have won only two of their past 17 meetings against Spanish opponents in all competitions (D6 L9).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXLnNExPVy0
Barcelona has advanced from each of their last 20 two-legged knockout stages in the UEFA Champions League by avoiding defeat away from home in the first leg, a streak that dates back to the 2005–06 season.
Barcelona has maintained only two clean sheets in their past 14 UEFA Champions League encounters. Indeed, among teams with 10 or more games in the competition since the beginning of last season, only Celtic (0) has kept fewer than Barcelona (2).
With Francesco Calzona in control of this game (after Rudi Garcia and Walter Mazzarri), Napoli became only the third Italian club to have three different managers in a single UEFA Champions League season, after Internazionale in 2003–04 and Roma in 2004–05.
Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Barcelona forward Robert Lewandowski has been directly involved in 18 goals in 12 games in the UEFA Champions League knockout stages (12 goals, six assists); only Karim Benzema (19) has been involved in more such goals during this time span.
Victor Osimhen of Napoli has scored six goals in his past six UEFA Champions League appearances at Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. Since the start of last season, the only players to score more goals at a single venue in the competition have been Erling Haaland at the Etihad Stadium (12) and Kylian Mbappé at the Parc des Princes (9).https://youtu.be/AXLnNExPVy0
At the age of 16 years and 223 days, Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal became the youngest player in UEFA Champions League knockout stage history. Warren Zaïre-Emery and Lamine Yamal are the only two 16-year-olds to start a match in the competition’s knockout stages this season.
