Barcelona will look to get better of Napoli in the Champions league tie at home to progress into the Quarter Finals where they will face either of Bayern Munich or Chelsea depending on their result, Barcelona and Napoli faced each other for the first time in a competitive fixture in the first leg which was 1-1 tie with Barca having an edge with the away goal.
Gennaro Gattuso knows very well how to play in a knockout stage as he himself has been there but the roles are different with this time around as he to put a team across the line against the likes of Barcelona, Napoli may have finished 7th in the league but have had positive impact since Gattuso took over, the Copa Italia victory over their arch Rivals Juventus does indicates the pedigree this team posses and are willing to go up against the best.
Barcelona this season has been chaotic to say the least the departure of the head Ernesto Valverde mid season, the bashing of the club officials publicly by the team Captain Lionel Messi and a major upset was the league performance were they did not perform by their standards which saw Real Madrid clinch the La liga title, another domestic upset was their elimination from Copa Del Rey in the quarter finals. So they have all to play for in the champions league.
Keeping in mind Barcelona is unbeaten in the champions league home game in last 35 matches is the second best record after the Bayern Munich’s 43 game run so Barcelona hold a fortress when its come to playing at home and have been successful in grinding out results into their favour, While Napoli have won just 1 of their 10 away champions league matches which is interesting.
Reliance on Lionel Messi can never be undermined and how poor Barcelona have been this season defensively are the factors that away team would surely like to capitalize on, while the Barcelona team would like to forget the horrors of Roma and Liverpool and to get back on their winning ways.
