The good spirit that has flooded Barça for a few months (“this is the way”, is the most repeated phrase in recent times in the appearances of the protagonists) cannot hide a harsh reality. The Barça club will play next Thursday at the Diego Maradona stadium in Naples to stay blank this season. Not only that. It would be Xavi’s fourth KO in just over a hundred days in office, in which he has only won one tie so far, that of Linares in the Cup. Eliminated by Athletic in the round of 16 of the competition in which he was defending the title, by the Benfica and Bayern in the Champions League group stage; and for Real Madrid in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup in Riyadh, the Europa League is the team’s last lifeline so as not to worsen the previous year, in which it was able to win the Copa del Rey. Barça, as of today, is not even in the round of 16, since this tie against Napoli is hardly an access playoff to be among the last sixteen.
Xavi and the players were satisfied after the game against Napoli. Barça shot more than 20 times on goal and in the last few minutes they pushed hard. And it is possible that he deserved the victory, but also that the first part was mediocre and that in the game he scored a penalty from the ‘new football’ that only existed in the head of Bastian Dankert, German referee who was in the VAR.
The elimination in Naples would have disastrous consequences for Barça. in terms of imageit would be very hard for the club to be left out of the second European competition before the round of 16. From a sporting point of view, he would leave the League as the only gateway to the Champions League. To date, Barça is fourth with the same points (and one game less) than Atlético de Madrid, one point more than Real and three more than Villarreal. Economically, in addition, the Europa League is a source of income for a suffocated club. If they won the competition, Barça would enter 14.9 million euros (500,000 for falling out of the Champions League; 1.2 for accessing the second round, 1.4 in the quarterfinals, 2.8 in the semifinals, and 8.6 for being champion ), a necessary injection that forces Barça to give its best version in Naples.