Barcelona 1-1 Napoli: Ferran Torres left frustrated as Catalans left without prize
The Blaugrana had plenty of chances and most of them fell to the Spanish striker who could not net them
Barcelona did not get the result they wanted, mainly due to a slew of missed chances by Ferran Torres, but they will be happy with their performance against Napoli on their Europa League debut on Thursday night.
It’s not often fans come to Camp Nou on the fourth day of the week but over 70,000 did for this, with the mood and atmosphere at the club greatly improved and still on the rise.
Barcelona took control from the start. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang won the ball high up the pitch, Torres fed Pedri but the midfielder fired over, before Nico fired at the keeper.
The rest of the chances, bar a late overhead kick, fell to Torres, but he was unable to grasp them.
Curling several efforts high and wide of goal, it seemed like he was cursed and ended up looking miserable, in tears at the end, despite also scoring Barcelona’s only goal of the game from the penalty spot.
Napoli took the lead against the run of play, although Marc-Andre ter Stegen had done well to deny the rampaging Osimhen after Oscar Mingueza was taken to the cleaners.
The visitors, who brought a sizeable following, went ahead when Piotr Zielinski had an effort repelled by Ter Stegen but reacted quickest to slam the rebound into the top corner.
Barcelona sprang back but did not get their equaliser until the 59th minute, when an Adama Traore cross was adjudged to be handled by Juan Jesus. It was a harsh penalty, perhaps, but one which Torres stroked calmly into the bottom corner, sending the keeper the wrong way with a Jorginho-esque hop.
Unfortunately for Barcelona he did not retain the same nerves of steel for some of his later chances, curling the ball over and wide.
The performance was strong, the result, even. Hope for the second leg, but on another night Barcelona could have put the tie to bed at home.
