Barcelona’s thrilling 3-1 victory at home against Napoli in their last-16 second leg gave them a well-deserved 4-2 aggregate victory on Tuesday, propelling them into the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in four years.
The hosts took the lead early on thanks to goals from Fermin Lopez and Joao Cancelo. Amir Rrahmani then reduced the deficit before halftime, but Robert Lewandowski sealed the victory with a late third.
After a 1-1 draw in Naples, Napoli defeated Barca 3-1 at home to repeat their Champions League match from 2020. Prior to this match, Napoli had never defeated Barca in five meetings.
That was also the Catalans’ most recent qualification for the round of eight and their last victory in a competition knockout stage match.
Barca pressed high early on in a very entertaining match at Montjuic Stadium, giving Napoli little time to settle. The few attacks the visitors managed to mount ended with Victor Osimhen offside.
Cancelo set up the first goal by playing in Raphinha down the left wing. He cut into the area and pulled back a ball, which Lewandowski allowed to run to Fermin, who was unmarked and shot calmly into the bottom left corner.
Barca doubled their lead before Napoli could regroup. In an attempt to draw even, the visitors advanced, but Barcelona quickly countered.
After a brilliant cross-field pass from Lamine Yamal, Raphinha cut into the area, misled Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and curled a shot that rebounded off the far post, where Cancelo was waiting to smash his first-ever attempt into the net.
At the half-hour mark, Napoli managed to break through when Matteo Politano beat Cancelo in the area and returned the ball to Rrahmani, who scored with a sidefooted shot past custodian Marc-Andre ter Stegen after running the ball from the back.
After the break, Lewandowski and Ilkay Gundogan forced two excellent saves out of the visiting custodian Alex Meret, but he was powerless to stop the game’s winning goal.
To end Napoli’s hopes, Lewandowski and Gundogan executed a beautiful one-two. Gundogan played the ball in to Roberto, and his swift pass found the Polish striker for an easy tap-in.
Napoli, the first-ever Italian champions to make it to the quarterfinals of the previous season, lost their best opportunity to tie the score just minutes earlier when Jesper Lindstrom glanced just wide.
