Napoli vs Barcelona Preview

Barcelona will travel to Naples this Thursday to play Napoli for the second leg of their 2021/22 Europa League knockout round.

The hosts are unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions (W3, D3) and will fancy their chances of winning this game to book their place in the next round.

They drew the first leg at the Camp Nou 1-1 as a Ferran Torres penalty cancelled out a Piotr Zielinski 29th minute strike. They will count themselves lucky to have emerged from that encounter with a tie as Barca simply outplayed them. January signing Ferran Torres was guilty of missing some clear cut chances to put the game beyond the reach of Napoli ahead of this return leg.

Meanwhile, they come into this tie on the back of a disappointing 1-1 draw with Cagliari over the weekend. They failed to capitalise on Inter Milan and AC Milan’s dropped points as a win would’ve seen them go top of Serie A.

The draw with Cagliari was their third draw in a row and leaves them trailing league Leaders AC Milan by just two points.

However, they will consider themselves favourites as they will be playing in front of their fans.

Having been knocked out of the Coppa Italia, Luciano Spalletti will hope to steer his side away from defeat as they continue their hunt for their first silverware since 2019/2020.

Meanwhile, Barcelona travel to Italy on the back of a 4-1 away win over Valencia in La Liga.

That win kept them in the top four and in contention for a place in the Champions League come next season.

Just like their hosts, the visitors are out of their domestic cup and will be extra motivated to progress into the next round.

With the addition of new signings to the Barca squad, Xavi Hernandez’s blueprint is taking shape. They displayed their full attacking force against Valencia and so will come into this tie with strong hope of qualification.