UCL: Barcelona deserved to beat Napoli, says Xavi
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez feels ‘the fairest result would’ve been our victory’ after a 1-1 Champions League draw with Napoli.
“We are a little sad at the result, we should’ve won the game,” Xavi told Amazon Prime Video Italia.
“Napoli barely managed anything in attack, we allowed them only one chance. These are the matches we ought to be winning, I think the fairest result would’ve been our victory.”
Robert Lewandowski had opened the scoring at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after a dominant opening 30 minutes, which saw Alex Meret keep out Lewandowski, Ilkay Gundogan and Lamine Yamal.
However, Victor Osimhen pounced for the only shot on target from the Partenopei, beating Marc-Andre ter Stegen on the Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa assist.
“After we took the lead, they woke up, which is precisely when we should’ve killed off the game. This is the Champions League.”
Much like Napoli, Barcelona are also having a disastrous season despite winning the domestic title last term and they started out certainly the more confident team this evening.
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“I really liked the performance from the team, I saw progress both in attack and defence. The performance was more than good, we just had to finish it off.”
The second leg will be in Barcelona on March 12, but not at Camp Nou as it is undergoing restructuring work, so it will be played at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys instead.