Barca encountered Napoli for the first leg of the Europa League playoffs (Round of 32). For the first time since the 2003/04 season, Barca now play in the Europa League, a bit disappointing but a new trophy to be won, as the team hasn’t won the Europa League yet. Yesterday, Barca dominated Napoli, in the second half. As they had 67% possession, and 21 shots, but only 5 were on target. Barca could’ve easily won but a clinical touch was missing, and it certainly wasn’t Ferran’s day.
Defense
GK: Ter Stegen – 6.5/10 Decent performance as he saved 3 of the 4 chances he faced, as he stopped Zielinski’s initial shot but the rebound fell to him again and the shot was too powerful to stop, but his ball distribution wasn’t as good as before.
RB: Mingueza – 7/10 A good performance from Mingueza, a clear step up from previous games. Passing was pretty accurate and recorded 6 recoveries and 1 key pass.
CB: Eric Garcia – 7/10 A decent to good performance from Eric. He was good as usual when distributing the ball, defensively, he needs to improve but was all right.
CB: Pique – 6.5/10 Decent performance as he completed his 2 tackles successfully and played out the ball well as usual. Compared to his previous performances from this season, he wasn’t as good, but he tried his best.
LB: Alba – 6/10 His presence and impact on the game was minimal, as the ball would circulate mainly through the right side of the pitch, and with Ferran playing out wider, Alba couldn’t do much to create or influence.
Midfield
CM: Nico – 7.5/10 A great performance from Nico, even after not getting much of a starting role in the past few matches. Nico showed all he’s got. As he won the ball back and created chances. I would love to see Nico starting more, preferably pairing him up in a double pivot with Frenkie.
CM: Frenkie: 6/10 He created a few chances but wasn’t accurate in his passing sometimes. He has been on and off so far this season.
CM: Pedri – 8/10 Pedri was excellent, as he was, he created 5 chances. Magnificent performance, easily the best midfielder from last night.
RW: Adama – 4.5/10 A clear step down in performance, compared to his last few matches. His delivery was poor and was just not good enough.
ST: Aubameyang – 6.5/10 Wasn’t bad, as he showed his effort, but needs to rediscover his old form as that lethal striker he once was at Dortmund and at Arsenal. He helped in a few moments in creating, and he positions himself to get into dangerous areas, but he misses that monster finish.
LW: Ferran – 4.5/10 Despite scoring the penalty which put Barca on level with Napoli. He was extremely poor in finishing and costed Barca a win, but we all know he is capable of scoring and finishing, this was just a night in which he was just plain poor. Hopefully he bounces back.
Substitutes
- Busquets – 6.5/10 Was really good in retaining possession and helped in creating.
- Gavi – 5.5/10 Didn’t have that energetic impact on the match.
- Dembele – 6.5/10 Was not received well by the fans, but did decently, as he helped create.
- Dest – 5.5/10 Didn’t do much to impact the match.
- Luuk De Jong – 6.5/10
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