What we learned from Barcelona’s draw against Napoli

Barcelona were in an unusual situation on Thursday night. They were playing Napoli in the Europa League. Two seasons ago, this was a fixture in the Champions League.

Given all that, the Catalans went into the match knowing they needed a result as their form in Europe, particularly this season, has been atrocious.

While they dominated during certain parts of the game, Napoli got on the board first courtesy of Piotr Zieliński, combined with some poor defending by Barcelona.

Despite the goal, the home team didn’t delve away from their plan which was maintaining possession and pressuring Napoli high, trying to win the ball back in their territory. They managed to do just that and had the first chance of the game.

Pedri fired just over the crossbar moments before Napoli scored.

It took Barcelona until the second half to equalize after VAR awarded them a penalty when an Adama Traore cross hit the arm of Napoli’s Juan Jesus. Ferran Torres, who had a roller coaster of a game, took the penalty and scored.

The introductions of Gavi, Sergio Busquets and Ousmane Dembele added a different dimension to the side and they came close to scoring the go-ahead goal on a couple of occasions. However, they were unable to get a second and were forced to settle for the draw.

The result was not the one they were hoping for but the performance was decent considering the quality of the opponent. But the trend of being unable to win at home in European competitions continue for Barcelona.

There was a lot of positives to take from the match but certain problem areas reared their ugly heads once again.

With all that being said, here are three talking points from the match.