Xavi’s side was held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg fixture last week after Ferran Torres canceled out Piotr Zielinski’s opener and left everything to play for in Naples.
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Barcelona head coach Xavi is expecting a “footballing war” against Napoli in the Europa League knockout tie second leg fixture at Diego Maradona Stadium on Thursday. Xavi’s side was held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg fixture last week and left everything to play for in Naples. In the first-leg tie, Piotr Zielinski’s opener was canceled out by Ferran Torres to make it all square going into the second leg. Barcelona need to win at a difficult away ground to have any chance of winning silverware this season as they are already out of the Copa de Rey and are 15 points behind leaders Real Madrid in the La Liga standings.
A closer look at #NapoliBarça pic.twitter.com/Jrs0CgkhGu
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 24, 2022
On the other hand, Napoli are having a very good season, sitting at the second spot in the Serie A standings, with 54 points, just two behind leaders AC Milan. Spalletti’s side displayed very good defensive football at Camp Nou to secure a draw. Meanwhile Xavi won’t be too disappointed as his team has been playing some good football of late.
In the last league match against Valencia, the Catalan club secured a 4-1 win courtesy of a hat-trick from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The new look Barca attack, consisting of Torres, Aubameyang and Torres has been performing pretty well.
According to Xavi, the game will come down to whoever dominates the ball at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, and it might just be a ‘war’ between the two European giants.
“It’s a Champions League-level rival,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“It will cost us to to dominate the ball. It will be a footballing war and whoever has the ball will win.
“They will restrict a lot and the atmosphere in the stadium will be intense.
“There is no other way to continue growing in our model.
“We should insist now more than ever. We are excited.”
It’s going to be a very tough battle in Naples as the hosts have a very strong defence led by Kalidou Koulibaly. In the first leg fixture Spalletti’s side successfully kept the Barca wingers quiet for a major period of the game.
Therefore we might see the Barca full-backs pushing up the field and thereby creating space for the attackers. However, that may leave them a bit vulnerable on counters. The likes of Frenkie de Jong and Gavi will need to put in the extra yards and provide cover for the defence.
Meanwhile Napoli will need to pull off their first ever competitive victory over Barcelona to progress to the next round.
