Napoli eliminated from the Champions League, Juventus from the Club World Cup

Napoli eliminated from the Champions League, Juventus from the Club World Cup

Napoli eliminated from the Champions League, Juventus at the new Club World Cup. The result in Barcelona (3-1 for Xavi's Azulgrana) has a double negative effect on Aurelio De Laurentiis' club which stops its adventure in the top European club competition in the round of 16 and will not be able to participate in the summer of 2025. at the new FIFA tournament scheduled in the StatesLewandowskiUnited. Two Italians will participate: Inter, who have already qualified for some time, and Juve who prevail over the Azzurri thanks to their best ranking in the Champions League.

Champions: Napoli out, Barcelona wins 3-1 and goes to the quarterfinals

Napoli fails to beat Barcelona and is forced to say goodbye to the Champions League. After the 1-1 draw in the first leg against Maradona, on Catalan soil the Azzurri fell 3-1: goals from Fermin Lopez, Cancelo and , while Rrahmani's Neapolitan flash was of no use. Xavi's team thus enters the quarter-finals, while for Calzona's men there is also the mockery of mathematical elimination from the new format of the 2025 Club World Cup, in which Juventus (ahead in the rankings compared to Napoli) will instead participate together with Inter.

The Blaugrana started strong and in the quarter of an hour they already broke the deadlock with Fermin Lopez, who shoots with first intention on Raphinha's precise low cross, blasting Meret for the 1-0. Not even two minutes pass and he Spaniards also scored the second goal, making it 2-0 with a tap-in into an empty net by Cancelo after a post hit by Raphinha himself on the counterattack. The Neapolitans look like dolls but have the strength to get up and shorten the distance after half an hour: Politano disengages on the right and passes to Rrahmani, who opens the left plate and slots the 2-1 into the corner. A handful of minutes later the Azzurri also came close to equalising, with Di Lorenzo heading Mario Rui's perfect cross, calling Ter Stegen into an extraordinary diving save.

At the beginning of the second half Napoli tried to further increase the revs of their engine, coming within centimeters of the equalizer with a right-footed shot from Kvaratskhelia that went just wide. After about ten minutes of apprehension, Barcelona regained their balance and returned to playing the game, worrying Meret with a couple of attempts from Raphinha and having a goal from Yamal disallowed due to an offside position. The very young Blaugrana tries to make up for it in the 78th minute by firing a left-footed shot to the back from a good position, on the other hand the new substitute Lindstrom has the ball on his head to make it 2-2, but the Dane wastes it by incredibly missing the target with a cross of Olivera. Xavi's team does not forgive and in the 83rd minute closes the score with Lewandowski, who receives a chocolate from Sergi Roberto and pushes the 3-1 into the net with an empty net. With time practically up, Napoli desperately tried to get back into the running again, but Olivera was unlucky to hit the crossbar, then Kvaratskhelia grazed the post again with a shot from the edge.