Barcelona beat Napoli to make Champions League quarter-finals

Barcelona defeated Napoli 3-1 and adavanced to the Champions League quarter-finals 4-2 on aggregate on Tuesday night.

Xavi Hernandez’s side came flying out of the blocks with goals from Fermin Lopez and Joao Cancelo but after Amir Rrahmani pulled one back, the Catalans started to sweat.

Italian champions Napoli, who salvaged a 1-1 draw in the last-16 first leg, were finally beaten when Robert Lewandowski swept home from close range.

It is the first time five-time winners Barcelona have reached the last eight of the competition since 2020, and they did so without injured midfield trio Pedri, Gavi, and Frenkie de Jong.

Xavi said he was leaving at the end of the season in January and his team have gone on a run of nine games without defeat after that decision.

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Teenage stars Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi have been key in that run, and both excelled against Napoli on a night which offered some relief to Barcelona amid a bleak season.

Centre-back Cubarsi, 17, got the better of Napoli forward Victor Osimhen.

Sergi Roberto said: “He’s incredible, he was the game’s best player.

“He doesn’t stop surprising us, in the last 16 and playing this way, he’s a player who can be here for his whole life.”

“It was an incredible night; it’s been) four years without getting where we belong, where the club deserves to be.

“The fans backed us – they are very important.”

Xavi demanded the fans turn their temporary Olympic Stadium home on the city’s Montjuic hill into a pressure cooker, and they duly obliged. Over 50,000 spectators marked the club’s largest attendance this season.

Francesco Calzona’s Napoli wilted as the Spanish champions came out of the blocks flying.

The Star