Traveling to Italy for the first time in the knockout stage of the Champions League since that pitiful loss against Roma, Barcelona will take on Napoli
Throughout all of it's inconsistency during the last few years we have been able to count on Barcelona as a nearly unbeatable side in the early stages of the Chanpions League. Even in a season on a tough group, when the manager was fired they qualified as the first place team pretty easily.
Barcelona now faces a favorable draw and although they come in at a moment where their confidence is low given their recent struggles, nobody expects to see Napoli advancing.
This Napoli team shows how much the quality of your opponents during the group stage can make a difference in whether or not you advance. That seems obvious but if you look at Napoli ever since Sarri elevated them into a higher category, this is their worst side during that span.
Last year Napoli was a better team under Ancelotti and they didn't advance in this competition because along other things they played in the same group as PSG and Liverpool. Firing Ancelotti was a Big mistake in my view and how the situation with the players was handled a even worse and despite their improvement over the last few months it doesn't change my opinion.
Looking ahead to what will happen, like I said we grew acostumed to seeing Barcelona as a lock in the semifinals but this current side inspires Li confidence. It seems like all it takes is a night off from Lionel Messi and while he is undescribable, he is only one man, nevertheless seeing Gattuso's Napoli beating Barcelona is a hard visualization for me.
It will be interesting to see how Quique Setién deploys his chest pieces in order to breakdown what's likely to be a very tight low block for Napoli relying a lit on the individual talents of Lorenzo Insigne and the link up pkay with Milk.
How will Griezmann play? Is Setién going with a four man midfield? How much will the loss of Alba affect the club's ability to attack from the left side?
Becaue the match is in Italy I actually believe Napoli will be even more pragmatic, scoring a goal is not as valuable as not conceding one for them. A wide open match in terms of chances and goals favors Barcelona not only because they are better and thus have more quality but also due to the away goal rule.
While I concede to the possibility of an upset it'd be a pretty big one.
Who advances: Barcelona
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Stay tuned. Reviews of the matches coming later this week.
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