<\/p>\n
BARCELONA: Barcelona\u2019s Champions League last-16 second leg tie at home to Napoli will be their most important game of the season, manager Xavi Hernandez said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The first leg was 1-1 and Barca on Tuesday have a chance to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2020 after failing to get past the group stage in the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
The last time they won a Champions League knockout game was in a 3-1 home win over Napoli in 2020. With the club third in La Liga, eight points behind leaders Real Madrid, Europe is now the priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important game of the season? Yes, it is, and we\u2019re ready, we\u2019re excited,\u201d Xavi told a press conference. \u201cIt\u2019s been four years since we\u2019ve been in the quarter-finals and that\u2019s how we see it, we want to compete against an opponent who, although they are not going through the best moment, have the base of the [2023] Scudetto champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barca\u2019s title defence looks likely to end in failure, while Napoli\u2019s is already over, with the Serie A champions seventh in the standings and 31 points adrift of leaders Inter Milan.<\/p>\n
Francesco Calzona took over in February, Napoli\u2019s third manager this season, and they are undefeated in their five games since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cNapoli have improved with the new coach, who is more dynamic and comfortable,\u201d Xavi said. \u201cI expect a brave Napoli that plays from the back and presses high, that doesn\u2019t speculate, has a lot of individual talent, it\u2019s a big game and it\u2019s a great team, current champions of Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barcelona have struggled with injuries of late, Frenkie de Jong and Pedri among those unavailable, and Xavi confirmed that forward Ferran Torres, who has missed the last seven games with a hamstring problem, is still not ready to return.<\/p>\n
The manager hopes to have Torres back for their next league game at Atletico Madrid on Sunday but for now is not looking for any excuses despite the absentees.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur absences are important but we have to compete. We were better there [away to Napoli] and we have to be better here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance to be in the quarter-finals, it\u2019s a chance to turn the tables, the absences are not an excuse, we\u2019re not afraid of failing, it\u2019s a chance to compete in front of our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach announced in January that he would leave Barcelona at the end of the season, and the Champions League is a final chance to go out on a high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not the important thing here, the club is the important thing \u2014 I have an expiry date,\u201d continued Xavi. \u201cWith Barcelona united, with the stadium full, we have to live a magic night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BARCELONA: Barcelona\u2019s Champions League last-16 second leg tie at home to Napoli will be their most important game of the season, manager Xavi Hernandez said on Monday. The first leg was 1-1 and Barca on Tuesday have a chance to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2020 after failing to get past the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/65ef7455340c9.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}