FC Barcelona held in check by Naples (1-1) in the first leg of the Europa League

Napoli suffered but went for a result that puts them in a good position ahead of the Europa League return play-off in a week. Faced with FC Barcelona, ​​which was the first appearance in C3 since 2004, the Italians, clearly dominated, turned their backs to obtain the draw at Camp Nou (1-1). While they had opened the scoring by Piotr Zielinski, they could even complain about a contentious penalty awarded to Barça and transformed by Ferran Torres, who was also very clumsy. But they are in a good position before receiving the Catalans.

A happy draw, but a lot of regrets for the Blaugrana. While they shot 21 times at the opposing goal (for only 5 shots on target), and had control of the game and the match, the players of Xavi – who has still not won a European Cup match with his training club as a coach- put themselves in a delicate position before going to the Diego Maradona stadium, emblematic player of the two teams which oppose during this Europa League play-off.

Ferran Torres, one goal but so many misses

Arrived this winter to boost an FC Barcelona attack deemed too inconsistent by Xavi, Ferran Torres was like his team, delivering a match with two faces on the lawn of the Blaugrana. Admittedly, it was he who allowed his people to snatch this result by transforming an extremely general penalty awarded by the referee, with the help of VAR (1-1, 59th). But he especially symbolized this clumsy Barcelona attack against the opposing goal.

Aligned with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adama Traoré, two other winter recruits from the Spanish club, he missed a golden opportunity, alone in the area on a pass from the Gabonese (28th). The turning point of the match since, in the process, Zielinski, in two stages, punctured Marc-André Ter Stegen to cool a Camp Nou of the big nights (1-0, 29th). If Aubameyang was also not successful, and Adama Traoré brought almost nothing, apart from this penalty gleaned, the Spaniard had reason to finish the marked match, feeling terribly sorry.

His many off-target shots, despite being in good positions (88th, 90th +2), did not allow Barça to validate their overwhelming superiority at the end of the match where Ousmane Dembélé, whistled when he entered the game, set fire to the opposing defence. In the ropes, Naples was thus able to get out of it, happy to see Luuk De Jong put his splendid return to the side (90th). Luciano Spalletti’s players, if they will have to show another face, now have the opportunity to play a bad trick on Gérard Pique’s partners at home next Thursday.