Times get tougher for Catalans after draw with Napoli

Barcelona, February 18

After dropping out of the Champions League, Barcelona now face a difficult task just to qualify for the Round of 16 in the Europa League.

In their first appearance in the second-tier European competition in nearly two decades, the Catalan club was held 1-1 by Napoli at Camp Nou Stadium on Thursday in the first leg of one of the eight playoffs between third-placed finishers in the Champions League groups and Europa League group runners-ups. It is the first time since 2003-04 that Barcelona are not in the knockout stages of the Champions League, a tournament they won five times.

Among the other matches, Scottish club Rangers stunned Borussia Dortmund 4-2 away, Real Betis won 3-2 at Zenit St Petersburg and Sheriff beat Braga 1-0. Sevilla, Atalanta and Porto recorded home victories, while Real Sociedad drew 2-2 at Leipzig.

In the playoff matches to reach the last-16 of the inaugural Europa Conference League, Leicester ended a five-game winless streak in all competitions by beating Randers 4-1. — AP

Missed chances vs Napoli make Xavi sad

Barcelona: Xavi Hernandez was left to rue his Barcelona side’s failure to convert chances as the Spanish giants were held to a 1-1 draw by Napoli in the first leg of their Europa League knockout stage playoff tie on Thursday. “I’m sad because it makes me angry that we missed so many (chances),” Xavi said. “I think that the only thing that we lacked was to convert the chances. After going behind, we generated 20 chances and six or seven were very clear.” reuters