Football

Barcelona wasteful as Napoli hold on to draw 1-1 in Europa League

By Aman Shukla

Barcelona were held 1-1 at home by Napoli in the first leg of their Europa League knockout stage playoff tie on Thursday.

Barca dominated the game but found themselves a goal down to the Italians after Piotr Zielinski finished off a counter-attack in the 29th minute.

Barca forward Ferran Torres equalised shortly before the hour mark from the penalty spot after the video assistant referee had spotted a very subtle Juan Jesus’ handball from an Adama Traore cross inside the box.

Barca were dominating the game throughout with their brand new attacking trident formed by new signings Torres, Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, however missed many chances to take the lead.

“I’m disappointed about the result, not about our game,” coach Xavi Hernandez told a news conference. “This is the way, we played well and deserved much more. The result is very unfair.”

Aman Shukla

Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication. A media enthusiast who has a stronghold on communication, content writing, and copy writing. Aman is currently working as a subeditor at dailyindianews.com and can be reached at [email protected]