Barcelona wakes Napoli from “sleep”!

Porto (AFP)

Portuguese Porto achieved a valuable and fatal victory over its English guest Arsenal 1-0, and the “fumbling” Napoli imposed a 1-1 draw on its Spanish guest Barcelona, ​​at the conclusion of the first leg of the 16th round of the European Champions League football competition.
The return matches will be held on March 12 at the Emirates Stadium in the English capital, London, and the Luis Companis Stadium in Barcelona.
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez expressed his dissatisfaction after the draw with Napoli, and said, “I am sad, because we should have won this match. I have nothing to blame my team for. I saw a team defending and attacking well, but our goal, paradoxically, woke up Napoli.”
In the first match at the “Do Dragao” stadium in Porto, Brazilian Galeño scored the only goal in the last fourth minute of stoppage time.
Porto, the champion of the competition in 1987 and 2004, was the best party in the match and the most risky in attacking against a defensive bloc of visitors who, despite their superiority in possession, did not create even a real scoring opportunity throughout the match, so they paid a heavy price by conceding the fatal goal in the last minute of stoppage time.
It is the first match in which the London team failed to score in its last six matches, and it entered the match ecstatic with five consecutive victories, including one with half a “dozen” clean goals, and two with five clean goals.
The London team, runner-up in the 2006 edition, when it lost to Barcelona of Spain 1-2 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on the outskirts of the capital, Paris, played its first match in the qualifying rounds of the prestigious continental competition in seven years, as it sought to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2010.
This is the second time that the two teams have met in the eighth-final of the competition, after the first in the 2009-2010 season, when Porto won 2-1 at home and Arsenal responded with a clean 5-0 victory in the second leg in London.
Arsenal's Spanish coach, Mikel Arteta, placed his confidence in the team that crushed Burnley 5-0 last weekend in the league, led by Bukayo Saka, Belgian Leandro Trossard, and Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli, while he kept the other Brazilian, Gabriel Jesus, on the bench.
At a time when the match was drawing its last breath, specifically the last fourth minute of stoppage time, Galino received a ball on the left side from his compatriot Otavio, who broke a counterattack by the London club, prepared it for himself without pressure, and shot it powerfully with his left hand from outside the area and into the far left corner. Raya “94”.
In the second, at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, the “fumbling” Napoli imposed a positive draw on its guest Barcelona, ​​1-1.
The Catalan team was the first to score through its Polish international striker Robert Lewandowski in the 60th minute, but Nigerian Victor Osimhen, the best player on the African continent last year, responded 15 minutes later, equalizing for the hosts, who sacked their coach Walter Mazzarri less than two days before the confrontation and appointed Francesco Calzona instead.
Coach Xavi Hernandez is waiting for the return match to lead his team to the quarter-finals, carrying with him painful memories of bidding farewell to the competition six years ago against another Italian team, Roma, “0-3 from the first leg in the quarter-finals after leading 4-1 from the first leg.”
Barcelona's pressure continued, until the brilliant Lewandowski opened the scoring with a shot from inside the area following a pass from Pedri (60).
This is the second goal of the former Bayern Munich star in six matches in the Champions League this season, and the 93rd in his career, placing him third on the list of top scorers, behind the Argentine Lionel Messi, the former Barcelona star (129), and the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (140).
With the first shot on goal, Osimhen equalized after manipulating defender Inigo Martinez, taking advantage of a pass from Cameroonian Frank Anguissa (75).
The goal spoiled the joy of German goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen by surpassing Brazilian Dani Alves in the number of matches in the Champions League (81), as the second most non-local player to represent the club in the competition after Messi (149).