The Spanish club FC Barcelona beat the Italian side, Napoli, in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League. Both teams drew their first match at Camp Nou. Last night, they met at the Stadio San Paolo, the home ground of Napoli. Barcelona won this match by a 4-2 margin. As a result, the home team Napoli got eliminated from this tournament. However, Borussia Dortmund also dropped out of the Europa League after losing to Rangers on aggregate.
Barca VS Napoli
As the first leg between the two teams was drawn, both were looking to win the second leg at the Stadio San Paolo. The home team manager Luciano Spalletti set up the team formation with 4-2-3-1., while Xavi Hernandez, the manager of FC Barcelona, played his team in 4-3-3 formation. Xavi included some new faces in the squad. At the front, Xavi used Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ferran Torres, and Adama Traore. Three of them joined Barca in the last summer transfer window.
However, Napoli could not take advantage of being at home. The visitors dominated over them from the beginning of the match. In the 8th minute, Barca took the lead from a brilliant counter-attack. Left-back Jordi Alba scored that goal with the help of Adama Traore. It is the fourth assist of Traore in five matches for Barcelona.
The visitors doubled their lead within five minutes. This time the Barca midfielder Frankie de Jong scored a wonderful goal outside of the box. Conceding two goals early, the home team was desperately seeking goals. They created some chances as well. In the 22nd minute, Barcelona goalkeeper Ter Stegan fouled the Napoli forward V. Osimhen inside the box. So, the match referee offered a penalty kick to the home team. Napoli skipper L. Insigne took that shot and made no mistakes.
It looked like Napoli could come back strongly. But center-back Gerard Pique didn’t let it happen. He scored the third goal just before halftime. As a result, Barcelona ended the first half in lead. Returning from the break, the home team couldn’t create enough chances to score. Moreover, they conceded again as Aubameyang netted in the 59th minute. However, Napoli scored a goal in the 87th minute but it wasn’t enough to win the match. As a result, Barcelona won the match and moved on to the next round.
