At 4 a.m. Beijing time on February 22, the first leg of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League 1 8 finals was held at the Maradona Stadium, and Barcelona played Napoli away.
In the first half, both sides failed to find the back of the net, showing a stalemate, which made the crowd feel bored. At half-time, there was expectation of a breakthrough in the second half.
At the beginning of the second half, the situation on the field changed abruptly. Lewandowski receives a pass from Pedri and breaks the deadlock with a shot! However, Napoli responded quickly and Osimhen levelled the scores.
The game was fierce, with both sides attacking and defending each other. The first leg ended 1-1. Despite the slight disappointment of the fans, this is only the beginning, with the second leg being played at Barcelona on 13 March.
In terms of the value of the two teams, the total value of the whole Napoli team is 53.5 billion euros, of which, worth 1The 100 million euro leading goalscorer Osimhen is the most expensive. Barcelona is worth 8 in totalAt 6.4 billion euros, Gavi and Pedri tied for the highest at 90 million euros.
In terms of the average age of both teams, Barcelona is 24The 7-year-old's youthful squad dominates, while Napoli's average age is 269 years old.
Before the game, Napoli officially announced another change of coach, former coach Mazzari resigned, and Slovak national team coach Karzona served as the team's coach. It is worth noting that this is the third change of manager for Napoli in just seven months. As last season's Serie A champions, Napoli are now reaping the consequences, with frequent changes in managers leading to the dismantling and restructuring of the technical and tactical framework, and the team's position in European competitions is also in jeopardy. After 24 league rounds, the team is only in 9th place, 27 points less than the first-placed Inter Milan, and there is no hope of defending the title.
A special statistic shows that Barcelona have yet to taste defeat on the road in La Liga this season, and their away form is actually stronger than at home. After failing to qualify for the Champions League group stage last season, Barcelona won four and lost two of their six group games this season to qualify for the knockout stage as group winners.
In the league, Barcelona currently has 16 wins, 6 draws and 3 losses, scored 52 goals and conceded 34 goals, accumulating 54 points and ranking 3rd, 3 points higher than Atletico Madrid and 2 points behind Girona. Judging by recent performances, there should be no problem in retaining a top-four finish in the league. However, in the last 10 games, the team's home and away record is 6 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, scoring 24 goals and conceding 19 goals, and the defensive problems are more prominent. In the Copa del Rey, they were eliminated by Athletic Bilbao. There is no threat to the league table at the moment, and the team can focus on the Champions League, which is one of the reasons why they won this game.
The official Twitter account of the Champions League released the list of all-time scorers in the Champions League after the game, in which Cristiano Ronaldo topped the list with 140 goals, Messi ranked second with 129 goals, and Lewandowski and Benzema ranked first with 93 and 90 goals respectively.
III. Fourth. The all-time scorers in the Champions League are as follows:
1. Ronaldo: 140 goals.
2. Messi: 129 goals.
3. Lewandowski: 93 goals.
4. Benzema: 90 goals.
5. Raul: 71 goals.
6. Ruud van Nistelrooy: 56 goals.
7. Muller: 52 goals.
8. Henry: 50 goals.
9. Ibrahimovic: 48 goals.
10. Shevchenko: 48 goals.
Napoli starters: 1-Meret, 22-Di Lorenzo, 13-Rahmani, 5-Juan Jesus, 17-Oliveira, 24-Cayust (68'8-Hamad Traore Lobotka, 99-Anguiza, 21-Politano (77'81-Raspadori Kvaratskhelia (68'29-Lindström Osimhen (77'18-Simeone).
Subs not used: 14-Contini, 95-Golini, 3-Natan, 6-Mario Rui, 30-Mazocchi, 55-Ousticao.
Barcelona starters: 1 - Ter Stegen, 23 - Kounde, 4 - Araujo, 15 - Christensen (86'18 - Romeu Inigo Martinez, 2 - Cancelo, 22 - Gundogan, 21 - Frenkie de Jong, 8 - Pedri (86'14 - Felix Yamal (80'11 - Raphinha Lewandowski.
Subs not used: 13-Peña, 26-Astraga, 19-Roque, 20-Roberto, 30-Casado, 32-Fermin, 33-Cubasi, 38-Giu, 39-Ford.
In other European competitions, Paris Saint-Germain beat Real Sociedad 2-0, Manchester City beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 and Real Madrid beat RB Leipzig 1-0. Borussia Dortmund and PSV Eindhoven played 1:1, and Inter Milan beat Atletico Madrid 1:0. The result of the match between Lazio and Bayern Munich was 1:0, and Napoli drew with Barcelona to make the score 1:1. Porto played Arsenal and had the last laugh 1-0, while Paris Saint-Germain won 2-0 against Real Sociedad.