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Barça and Naples, two desperate and also very passionate teams, united by Maradona and presided over by two especially populist figures, are playing the season today in a stadium far from the football pomp like Montjuïc. It is not exactly the best possible field or a final, nor a summit match or a unique event, but rather the return of the round of 16 of the Champions League. Neither team is even obliged to perform heroics if you take into account that the first leg ended in a draw: 1-1. It is enough for both of them to win, to win time and money, a question of survival and therefore it is regarding saving a year mortgaged by results and accounts, especially delicate in a club that is already beginning to discuss the management model and property such as FC Barcelona.
The difference between victory and defeat is enormous for Barça. The meeting marks the border between the abyss or flight, fate or illusion, confined as Barcelona fans are in a waiting room before being able to return to the longed-for Camp Nou at the end of the year. The European Cup, the cursed competition since the conquest of Berlin 2015, has become the lifeline for the Blaugrana, who have not reached the quarterfinals for four years (2019-2020). The trajectory lately is disconcerting if one takes into account that Xavi’s team had performed well in the League – it is the current champion – and on the other hand was eliminated in the qualifying phases of the two previous editions of the Champions League. He didn’t do better in the Europa League either. The challenge now is curiously to avoid zero and aspire to continental infinity from a match that summarizes the precarious situation of FC Barcelona.
The club’s budget requires the 15 million that the round pass entails and also demands to be able to continue on the European wheel of fortune following the current budget deviation exceeds 30 million without counting the 40 that Líbero has not deposited. The most optimistic forecasts announce a deficit of more than 100 million and the need to transfer players to maintain fair play in the League. And the team will need a serious reform in the summer following the youth players from La Masia, footballers like Pau Cubarsí – unprecedented in Europe – and Lamine Yamal, are more protagonists than millionaire signings like Raphinha – close to 70 million — or illustrious loans from the likes of João Félix and Cancelo. The match once morest Naples, already conditioned by the absences of De Jong, Pedri and Gavi, calls for the decisive intervention of the most experts in Xavi’s squad.
Although the coach feels liberated since he announced his departure on June 30, elimination would be a sentence from March to May for the team because its aspirations in the League—and, therefore, of winning a title—are so slim that With 10 games left, they are third in the table with one point less than Girona and eight less than Real Madrid. The team of patience, the one that was capable of keeping the ball until it bored its rivals, is today a victim of haste and pressure following pardoning Naples at the Maradona stadium on the day of coach Calzona’s debut in a blow from Di Laurentiis effect.
The Italians have not lost a game since then and some reports announce that their president is willing to distribute 10 million to the players for eliminating Barcelona. Nor have the Blaugrana known defeat since their coach has an expiration date and they have already gone three games without conceding a goal since Osimhen scored the equalizer in Italy.
Neither team, however, is trustworthy, and even less so in a setting as unpredictable as Montjuïc. The Olympic stadium is not the Camp Nou. This is seen in the stands – the best attendance barely exceeds 50,000 spectators and only 17,000 are Barça subscribers – and also on the field: the Blaugrana have lost three league games – Madrid, Girona and Villarreal – and conceded a draw – Granada — following beating Porto in the Champions League. The importance of the field factor, in any case, has been reduced in favor of Barça, fortunately for a Naples team that will have almost 3,000 fans traveling to Barcelona.
The Barça coach assures that the formula is to “play without fear”, aware that there is no other way out than to win or win for Xavi, for Laporta and for Barça. The finals are anticipated and will be played in March in Montjuïc.
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