The Catalans responded to the signature goal of Dries Mertens with an accurate kick by Antoine Griezmann.
For most of the match, the hosts flawlessly followed the game plan from Gennaro Gattuso, competently restraining the sweeping attacks of “Barcelona” and snapping back with fast counterattacks. At the end of half an hour, one of them led to a goal against the Catalans - Petr Zelinsky played great in the selection against Junior Firpo, and Dris Mertens sent the ball into the “nine” with a firm stab.
“Napoli” continued to bend the line, but in the middle of the second half, the unexpected happened. First, the injured ankle Mertens limped, and then, as soon as Arkadiusz Milik, who replaced the Belgian, appeared on the field, the guests equalized. Nelson Semedu broke into the penalty area and shot to the goalkeeper, from which Griezmann had no right to miss. Lorenzo Insigne had two excellent opportunities to bring the Neapolitans forward again, and in the end, Arturo Vidal was removed for two yellow cards in one episode.
Napoli: Ospina, Di Lorenzo, Manolas, Maksimovic, Rui, Fabian, Demme, Zielinski, Callejon, Mertens, Insigne.
Subs: Meret, Allan, Elmas, Luperto, Politano, Hysaj, Milik.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Semedo, Pique, Umtiti, Firpo, Busquets, Rakitic, De Jong, Vidal, Messi, Griezmann.
Subs: Arthur, Neto, Lenglet, Puig, Fati, Araujo, Akieme.
Referee: Felix Brych
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