The reigning champions of Italy and Spain meet at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday at 22:00 CAT as Napoli take on Barcelona in the first leg of a heavyweight contest in the Uefa Champions League round of 16. Catch the action live on SuperSport.
In a stadium bearing the name of a player who represented both clubs with distinction, Napoli – who finished as Group C runners-up, eight points behind Barcelona's great rivals Real Madrid – will attempt to beat the Spanish side for the first time in what is the clubs' third knockout contest in five seasons.
They will do so with a new man at the helm after Slovakia coach Francesco Calzona replaced Walter Mazzarri just 48 hours before the first leg.
Barcelona are in the round of 16 for the first time in three campaigns and finished first in Group H, edging out Porto on head-to-head record after the teams had finished level on 12 points.
While Napoli progressed beyond the first knockout round for the first time in 2022/23, Barcelona are bidding to reach a first quarterfinal since 2019/20 – their 13th successive last-eight appearance.
MATCH FACTS
have never won a major European match against Barcelona (D2 L2), while they’ve previously faced them in the round of 16 of the Uefa Champions League in 2019-20, losing 4-2 on aggregate.
Barcelona won 4-2 in their last meeting with Napoli, in the play-off round of the 2021-22 Uefa Europa League. This was the joint-most goals a team have scored in a European away game against the Italian side, with Manchester City being the only other team to have netted four (also a 4-2 win, in November 2017).
Barcelona are winless in their last three Uefa Champions League games against Italian opponents (D1 L2), losing as many of those three games as
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