Napoli will welcome Barcelona to Italy this Thursday for the second leg of their Europa League second leg game.
Venue: Stadio Diego Armando Maradona (Naples)
Key Statistics
Napoli are unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions (W3, D3).
They have not conceded more than a goal in their last six games.
The visitors have progressed from each of their previous eight UEFA knockout ties, in which they drew the first leg away.
Barcelona have failed to score more than a goal in their last ten European games – including five scoring blanks.
The visitors have won just one of their last ten away European knockout games (D4, L5), failing to score six times.
They are unbeaten in their last 13 games in all competitions – 90 minutes only (W6, D7).
Head to head
The last seven head-to-head meetings between both sides has ended with four wins for Barcelona and one win for Napoli (D2).
Latest performances in all competitions
Napoli: D-D-D-W-W
Barcelona: W-D-D-W-W
Napoli
Napoli will look to get a win when they welcome Barcelona to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for the second leg of their Europa League clash.
The first leg at the Camp Nou ended in a 1-1 draw as a Ferran Torres penalty cancelled out a Piotr Zielinski 29th minute strike. The Naples club will count themselves lucky to have emerged from that encounter with a point, as they were simply outplayed by the Blaugrana. Ferran Torres in particular missed some clear cut chances to put the game beyond the reach of Napoli going into the return leg.
They come into this tie on the back of a 1-1 draw with Cagliari over the weekend. They would have gone on top of the Serie A table had they won given that bothAC Milan and Inter Milan failed to win their games.
The result was their third draw in a row and leaves them trailing league Leaders AC Milan by just two points.
Thanks to the first leg result, this match is evenly set up with both teams with a fair chance of progressing to the next round. Napoli 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 silverware since 2019/2020.
Possible Napoli starting line-up
Alex Meret; Amir Rrahmani, Kalidou Koulibaly, Juan Jesus; Mario Rui, Fabian Ruiz, Diego Demme, Eliot Elmas; Piotr Zielinski, Dries Mertens, Victor Osimhen.
Injured: Matteo Politano, Hirving Lozano, Stanislav Lobotka, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Lorenzo Insigne
Doubtful: Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Kevin Malcuit
Suspended: None
Barcelona
Barcelona travel to Italy off the back of a 1-4 win over Valencia in La Liga.
The win kept them in the top four and contention for a place in the Champions League come next season.
Just like Napoli, Barcelona are out of their domestic cup and will be extra motivated to progress into the next round as they look to win the only trophy they can get their hands on this season.
With a bunch of new signings, Xavi Hernandez’s team is taking shape. And with their attacking force on full show against Valencia, the Blaugrana faithful have a strong hope of qualification. Xavi will also be hoping for the same performance from his boys in Italy.
In the reverse fixture, it was January signing Ferran Torres who returned parity to the game from the penalty spot and in the weekend win over Valencia former Arsenal hitman and captain Aubameyang helped himself to a hat trick.
With such attacking talent at his disposal, Xavi’s team have scored 11 goals in their last four games, but Napoli will hope to capitalise on their weak defensive record as the Blaugrana have not kept a clean sheet in their last four matches conceding six times.
Possible Barca starting line-up
Andres Ter Stegen; Serginio Dest, Ronald Araujo, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba; Pedri, Sergio Busquets, Gavi; Adama Traore, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ferran Torres.
Injured: Samuel Umtiti, Ansu Fati, Alejandro Balde, Sergi Roberto
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Prediction
Napoli 2-1 Barcelona
