- Barcelona defeated Napoli and will play in the quarter-finals of the Champions League
- Piotr Zieliński scored 70 minutes at Camp Nou, Arkadiusz Milik entered the field in the last parts of the match and scored a goal, which, however, was not recognized
- Bayern Munich will be another rival of the Catalan Duma
The Neapolitans could start the Saturday game sensationally and lead 1-0 in the second minute. A terrible mistake was made by Gerard Pique, the ball went to Dries Mertens, and the Belgian hit the goal post of Mark-Andre ter Stegen. Shortly thereafter, Mertens was able to have an assist, but Fabian Ruiz was successfully blocked at the last minute.
In the ninth minute, Mertens put the ball to Zieliński, the Pole hit hard, but very inaccurately. The unused situations took their revenge on the guests a moment later, when Clement Lenglet showed a beautiful “header” after Ivan Rakitić’s excellent cross from the corner kick.
In the 22nd minute, Jose Callejon had a chance, but he missed the shot fatally. Leo Messi was more successful on the other side of the pitch. The leader of Blaugrana showed an excellent, individual action, which he finalized with a precise shot. Seven minutes later the Argentinian defeated David Ospina for the second time. After the VAR analysis, however, the goal was not recognized as Messi was helping himself with his hand while receiving the ball.
Four minutes before the end of the first half, Kalidou Koulibaly intervened unfortunately. The Senegalese, trying to knock the ball out of Messi’s feet, caught the Argentinian, who had to seek medical attention. Cuneyt Cakir decided to check the whole situation through VAR and dictated a penalty kick. Luis Suarez approached the “eleven” and with a certain shot raised the result to 3: 0.
The Duma of Catalonia, however, did not manage to maintain such a lead until the break, because in the last seconds of the first half a foul in his own penalty area was committed by Rakitić and the referee again pointed to “lime”. The penalty kick was decided by Lorenzo Insigne, who confused Ter Stegen and without any problems ended up in the German’s net.
A few minutes after the change of sides, Insigne headed, but directly into the hands of the Barcelona goalkeeper. Immediately after that, Antoine Griezmann ran across the ground towards Suarez, but Kostas Manolas cut the Frenchman’s pass at the last moment. Shortly after that, Zieliński stopped the hosts’ dangerous action by undercutting Messi. Our representative midfielder received a yellow card for a foul, and ten minutes later he left the field.
In the place of Zieliński, Hirving Lozano appeared on the playing field, who had the opportunity to pass the Insigne center just after entering the field, but missed the goal from an uncomfortable position. In the 79th minute, Gennaro Gattuso let Arkadiusz Milik in. Moments after entering the field, the Pole hit the net with his head, but he was on the minimum offside and the goal was not recognized.
In the 85th minute the Polish striker had the opportunity again, but his strong shot was blocked by Pique. Lozano squandered two chances after that. First the Mexican headed into the post from an acute angle, and then Ter Stegen intervened well.
Ultimately, although Napoli tried to score a contact goal to the very end, the result did not change and Barcelona won 3: 1, ensuring a promotion to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In it, Quique Setien’s players will play against Bayern Munich.
FC Barcelona – SSC Napoli 3:1 (3:1)
Goals: Clement Lenglet (10), Leo Messi (23), Luis Suarez (45 + 1 penalties) – Lorenzo Insigne (45 + 5 penalties)
Yellow cards: Luis Suarez – Piotr Zieliński. Judge: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)
FC Barcelona: Marc-Andre ter Stegen – Nelson Semedo, Gerard Pique, Clement Lenglet, Jordi Alba – Sergi Roberto, Ivan Rakitić, Frenkie de Jong – Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez (90 + 2. Firpo Junior), Antoine Griezmann (84. Monchu Ramon) .
Naples SSC: David Ospina – Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Kostas Manolas, Kalidou Koulibaly, Mario Rui – Fabian Ruiz (79th Elif Elmas), Diego Demme (46th Stanislav Lobotka), Piotr Zieliński (70th Hirving Lozano) – Jose Callejon (70th Matteo Politano ), Dries Mertens, Lorenzo Insigne (79. Arkadiusz Milik).
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