Will Barcelona Break Through Napoli’s Insurmountable Defense?
Spalletti’s team fights for the ‘scudetto’ with an almost untraversable block
In the major leagues, only City (14) and Sevilla (16) have conceded fewer goals than the Partenopeo team (17)
Inter Milan, the only team to make a come back from a match in Serie A (3–2 in November)
17 goals conceded in 24 games in Serie A speaks for itself. Only Manchester City (14) and Sevilla (16) have conceded fewer goals in the five major European leagues. The Partenopeo team will play at the Camp Nou on Thursday for the second time in its history after losing 3–1 in the round of 16 of the 2019–20 Champions League in August behind closed doors due to the pandemic. The first leg (1–1) was played six months earlier in San Paolo.
The current Napoli has improved a lot over that team coached by Gennaro Gattuso, who a year later squandered fourth place in the league by drawing (1–1) at home against Verona. Now it is Luciano Spalletti who commands the locker room of a group that dreams of repeating the successes of the most glorious stage in their history, which will be a hundred years old in 2026. Third in the ‘scudetto’, two points behind Milan and one behind Inter (with a game in hand), Napoli dreams of repeating the 1987 and 1990 league titles and the UEFA Cup of 1989 to pay homage in the best way to Diego Armando Maradona.
With 46 goals in their favour, eight more than Barça in LaLiga , Napoli have only missed scoring in three games (0–0 at Roma, 0–1 against Empoli and 0–1 against Spezia). While defending, they have conceded 17, 10 less than the Catalans in the domestic league, displaying a reliability at the back that makes it an almost insurmountable wall. In fact, in Serie A they have advanced 18 times and only Inter (3–2) came back in November, also coming back from Juventus (2–1) and Fiorentina (1–2).
In 2022 Napoli has four league wins and two draws (1–1 in Turin on January 6 and 1–1 on Saturday at home against Inter) with Kalidou Koulibaly already back from the Africa Cup. The Senegalese center-back only played the second leg against Barça two years ago. Together with the Kosovar Amir Rrahmani , signed from Verona in 2020, they give solidity to a defense that is usually completed on the wings by the Italians Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Mario Rui, already present in the last tie against the azulgrana and leaders of minutes played in the table of Spalletti, an old fox from the benches who only left from 2009 to 2014 to lead Zenit .
Politano and Lobotka, KO
In the 2018–19 Champions League Napoli was unable to beat a Barça without Messi, then injured: 2–0 at the Camp Nou and 1–1 at the San Siro. On Thursday, they will be without winger Matteo Politano, with a strained sole muscle in his right leg, as well as former Celta midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, with a low-grade hamstring injury in his right thigh.
How will Xavi’s Barcelona break through the insurmountable Italian wall?
Crosses. In Barcelona’s match against Espanyol, Barca ended with a total of 25 crosses into the area, a record since Xavi’s arrival on the culé bench. Before, with Ronald Koeman on the bench this season, 45 crosses were registered against Granada at the Camp Nou and 27 against Alavés, also at home, with Sergi Barjuan as interim coach.
The Clasico against Madrid at the Camp Nou in the League ended with 25 crosses into the area while in the Super Cup there were 23 crosses lobbed into the area by Barca.
The arrival of Adama Traoré is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of accurate crosses played. He provided the most crosses against Espanyol, ten, ahead of Jordi Alba’s eight.
