Barcelona 1-1 Napoli

Barcelona played their first Europa League match this season against Napoli. The Catalans are looking to qualify for the Round of 16 by beating their Italian opponents.

Barcelona started the match decently but it was Napoli who took the lead through Piotr Zielinski. 

Match Summary

The match ends with the honors even, as despite the second half being one-way traffic, Barca couldn’t add to Torres’ equalizer and win the game! Napoli really began flagging in that second half, but stayed firm at the back to go into the second leg level at 1-1! Barca will feel they should have won that game, and had their attack not been so blunt for large swathes of the tie, they may well have.

Ousmane Dembele came on for Barça and he showed so much quality in the latter stages against Napoli. Xavi has been backing the Frenchman and has continued to do so after his Performance today.

“Ousmane Dembélé will turn whistles into applause here at Camp Nou, I’m sure”.

Barça’s boss also spoke on Ferran Torres who missed some clear chances against Napoli. 

“We have to trust Ferrán Torres – it’s a matter of giving him time and confidence”.

Barcelona will need to take the Europa League seriously. Barça fans are not used to the competition, but the club should be looking at winning this competition as it would guarantee them a spot in the UEFA Champions League next year.

Rangers Beat Dortmund At Home.

What an incredible performance from Rangers then, who take a two-goal advantage into the home leg after a brilliant 4-2 victory away in Dortmund.

Kent showed sublime pieces of skill all game, and Morelos caused no end of troubles to the leaky Dortmund defense. Bellingham and Guerreiro grabbed some consolation goals with fine strikes to avoid a complete embarrassment for the hosts, but they have thoroughly outplayed all game.

Other Europa League Results

FC Sheriff 2-0 Braga

Zenith 2-3 Real Betis.