Napoli-Barcelona is a match valid for the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League and is played on Wednesday at 9 p.m.: streaming, probable formations, predictions.
Confusion is the right noun to match Napoli’s season, which is increasingly in the grip of chaos. The Azzurri continue to grope in the dark, and before the long-awaited Champions League clash with Barcelona they said goodbye to their second coach in a matter of months. That Walter Mazzarri whom in November President Aurelio De Laurentiis had identified as a sort of ferryman to make up for the “damage” committed by his predecessor, Rudi Garcia.
The numbers, however, are not on the side of the Tuscan coach, who has done significantly worse than the Frenchman since he has been at the helm of the Italian champion team. As a points average but also in terms of scoring average (8 defeats in the last 16 games). The home draw with Genoa (1-1), which keeps Napoli glued to an anonymous ninth place in the league and even sinks them to -9 from fourth-placed Atalanta, convinced De Laurentiis to make another drastic decision. On Monday Mazzarri was still officially relieved and his replacement is Francesco Calzona, former deputy of Maurizio Sarri and Luciano Spalletti as well as current technical commissioner of Slovakia.
A coach who knows the square well and has accomplished great things at the helm of the Slovak selection, leading it to the final stage of the upcoming European Championships. Calzona, who will remain at the helm of Napoli for the next four months, will obviously also retain the position of selector.
Barcelona does not shine
There are those who say that the Champions League could be a possible turning point in a season so far to be forgotten but at the moment the conditions do not seem to be in place to achieve such a feat.
Yet Barcelona, despite facing fewer problems than Napoli, is not doing so well. Xavi, who has repeatedly ended up at the center of criticism, has already announced that he will leave at the end of the season. And the risk that the club will be left empty-handed – zero titles – is very high. Barça, which qualified in the round of 16 as first after a head-to-head match with Porto (goal difference being decisive), lost the Spanish Super Cup, was eliminated from the King’s Cup and is currently out of the title race, being -8 behind rivals Real Madrid. Last Saturday, a penalty by Lewandowski in full recovery prevented a second consecutive draw against a team fighting not to be relegated after a pyrotechnic 3-3 draw with Granada: against Celta Vigo it ended 2-1.
The blaugrana coach at the “Maradona” in attack will rely on Yamal, Lewandowski and Pedri, having to do without Ferran Torres and in all likelihood an unfit Joao Felix. No absentees, however, in Napoli. Osimhen, available again after the African Cup of Nations, will lead the Azzurri attack.
The prediction
Napoli and Barça have faced each other twice in the last four years, first in the Champions League and second in the Europa League. On both occasions it was the Blaugrana who passed the round, coming out of the two challenges at the “Maradona” undefeated (1-1 and 2-4). Xavi’s team, despite not losing for four games, is not going through a happy period and is grappling with numerous problems but Napoli is definitely worse off and for the Azzurri, called to metabolize yet another change of coach, it will not be at all easy to close the gap with the Catalans, who should at least avoid defeat in a one-goal-per-side match.
The probable formations of Napoli-Barcelona
NAPOLI (3-4-3): Meret; Østigård, Rrahmani, Juan Jesus; Di Lorenzo, Zambo Anguissa, Lobotka, Mazzocchi; Politano, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia.
BARCELONA (4-3-3): ter Stegen; Koundé, Ronald Araújo, Iñigo Martínez, João Cancelo; de Jong, Christensen, Gündoğan; Yamal, Lewandowski, Pedri.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
