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Friday, May 3, 2024

Blaugrana can get over the line –

It is all to play for in the second leg of this last-16 tie after Barcelona and Napoli drew 1-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last month.

The Naples club were arguably fortunate to avoid defeat, though, having scored with their only shot on target through Victor Osimhen in the 75th minute.

That came after Robert Lewandowski had put Barca ahead in Italy, but the Catalan giants failed to capitalise on their better opportunities.

Team news

Barcelona’s injury issues have worsened since the first leg, with Frenkie De Jong and Pedri both unavailable for this match, joining Gavi, Ferran Torres, Alejandro Balde and Marcos Alonso on the sidelines.

Jens Cajuste and Cyril Ngonge will be missing for Napoli, while Amir Rrahmani’s involvement is also in doubt and Piotr Zielinski is not registered for the knockout stages so will not feature.

The stats

Napoli have won just one of their last four games in the Champions League and they leaked nine goals in the competition’s group stage.

As for Barcelona, they topped Group H with four wins from their six matches.

The Blaugrana are on a decent run of form, having not lost any of their last eight matches in a run stretching back to the end of January.

Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen was on the scoresheet in Napoli’s home first leg against Barcelona.

Prediction

LaLiga title may seem increasingly out of reach for Xavi’s Barca, but they could be dark horses in this season’s Champions League.

They topped their group earlier this season with four wins from six games and arguably deserved to win the first leg of this last-16 tie in Naples.

They won the shot count 12-6 and reduced Napoli to just a solitary shot on target.

Unfortunately for Barca, Napoli found the net with it, but the draw forms part of an eight-game unbeaten run for Xavi’s side.

Barcelona have looked especially good at home recently, smashing Getafe 4-0 and edging Mallorca 1-0 in their last two games at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.

Injuries have piled up for Barca, but they have handled them well and have adopted a more conservative approach as a result.

That has led to three successive clean sheets from the Catalan club since the first leg and, with that in mind, they are worth a bet to win without conceding against Napoli on Tuesday.

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