Barcelona’s players and staff walked slowly as they made their way out of Napoli’s Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, filing through the mixed zone towards the bus waiting to take them to the airport.
They didn’t appear to be in a huge rush, perhaps knowing that Xavi would be tied up in post-match media duties a little longer, and with Pedri following his manager as he was randomly selected for the anti-doping test.
While the rest of the team waited, there was a mood of moderated happiness among the group. The feeling of having mostly dominated a Champions League knockout match would have been a new or distant memory for most individuals at Barcelona, and the backroom staff knew they deserved to win the game.
“We were the better team overall tonight,” said one backroom staff source, who preferred to speak anonymously to protect their position. “I think our problem arrived after we scored. We needed our midfield to step up, keep the ball and pause the game. But we just couldn’t.”
Napoli at times looked like a team destined for elimination, but must have felt like they had saved their lives after the final whistle. Barca were on top for the majority of the game, and went ahead thanks to an inspired Robert Lewandowski — who scored his fifth goal in the past four matches — but conceded a late equaliser after a sloppy defensive action from Inigo Martinez up against Victor Osimhen.
“If we play like this we’ll win more games than we lose, I’m sure of that,” Xavi stated after the 1-1 draw.
“I am happy because a lot of the things we’ve worked on since I’ve been manager were there today. It’s one of the best games we’ve ever played in Europe since I’ve been here. It’s a pity the result did not prove our point.”
Xavi announced last month that he will step down at the end of the season (Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Despite all their good play, Barca’s defence cost them again. The Catalans registered 12 shots, six of them on target, while the hosts scored with their only attempt on target, in the 75th minute. Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret was tested five times, denying good strikes from Lamine Yamal and Ilkay Gundogan in the first half. But Napoli’s new manager Francesco Calzona left his first game on a positive note: they will stand a chance in just under three weeks at Montjuic.
When Xavi looks back and analyses what Barca should improve before the second leg on March 12, he’ll most likely follow the point made by his colleague above and look at the midfield line. Once the symbol of the best team he assembled, the four-midfielder set up that won La Liga in 2023 is now vivid proof of how unbalanced and lacking in confidence his players have been throughout this season.
On the list of positives there, however, is Gundogan. The 33-year-old was arguably the most reliant player against Napoli, a perfectly-rounded performance in which he barely put a foot wrong. He launched Yamal and Lewandowski into two big chances during the first half and helped the team find the balance they needed at all times. He made the most key passes in the game with three, and levelled Lewandowski with the most shots (four). In the final 15 minutes of the game, he looked exhausted.
But there is a price to pay for having the versatile Germany international in the position that best suits him. It leaves Andreas Christensen as the holding midfielder, a role he is still learning. The 27-year-old Dane has not done a great deal wrong, but he’s clearly not the best fit. He tries to play simple passes and brings a no-nonsense attitude, but as Wednesday’s game went on, Napoli were able to drag him out of position and Xavi had to take him off for Oriol Romeu, as he had been shown a yellow card and was beginning to struggle with transitions.
Then there’s the case of Pedri, who clearly is yet to rediscover his rhythm after returning from injury last month. His performance was brightened by his delicious assist for Lewandowski, a beautiful delivery that nutmegged Napoli defender Amir Rrahmani. However, he was deployed in an unfamiliar false winger role that took him out of creative areas and required more tracking back to help Joao Cancelo in defence. It all seemed to make him more erratic with the ball — he lost possession 10 times.
In the middle of all of them, Frenkie de Jong was more active on the defensive end, and he put in a decent display after his explosive words the day before. But ultimately Barca were unable to find the stability they needed to come away with the win.
It all ended up forming into a familiar pattern.
De Jong spoke out against ‘lies’ published in the media on his Barca future (David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)
“It’s happened to us a lot this season, we don’t have this clarity to make the difference in the final third,” said that same backroom staff source. “We’ve lacked that all year, and there’s also a self-confidence element that goes along with the bad results.”
How the team responds to this might very well end up being considered the most important moment of the season. And it has big implications in the longer-term, too.
Barca, whose financial issues are well known, would earn at least a further €10.6million (£9m; $11.5m at current rates) in TV revenues by making it through to the quarter-finals. And they have already included that as projected revenue in their budget.
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It is an obligation for the team to make sure they reach the last eight, one that takes on extra importance this week following the news La Liga has further reduced their salary limit, with the club unable to follow the financial viability plan they submitted to the competition body last summer.
Barca’s trip to Napoli provided some reassurance on the pitch, on a night free of European trauma. And they will be favourites for the return leg.
With this underwhelming Napoli side in front of them, it’s in Xavi’s hands to see his side counted, somehow, among the best eight teams of the Champions League this season.
Football is a mad world.
(Top photo: Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
