Barcelona’s Sports Director, Anderson Luis de Souza alias Deco, is not happy that his team is considered lucky because they met Napoli in the last 16 of the 2023-2024 Champions League. The reason is that according to Deco there is no luck in the Champions League and he reminded that Napoli is a strong team with the status of champions of the Italian League 202-2023.
Yes, many people think Barcelona is lucky because they will play against Napoli. The reason is, the team from Catalonia has never lost to the Partenopei – Napoli’s nickname – in their four meetings in European competition. Two of these meetings ended in a draw.
Responding to this, Deco, who is also a Barcelona legend, also commented on this luck. He said there was no luck in the Champions League.
According to Deco, Napoli is a strong opponent. He also believes that the Barca vs Napoli match in the last 16 of the 2023-2024 Champions League will be fierce.
“There is still time to progress but they are league champions, just like us, and I am sure we will see two difficult matches,” said Deco in the club’s official release, Tuesday (19/12/2023).
“There is no luck in the Champions League. We are talking about Napoli, the league champions, and they have quality players. In football talking about luck makes no sense,” concluded Deco.
As is known, Barca first met Napoli in the last 16 of the 2019-2020 Champions League. In the first leg, Barcelona could only draw 1-1 when they visited Napoli.
Furthermore, the Blaugrana immediately crushed Napoli in the second leg with a score of 3-1 and won with an aggregate total of 4-2. Their dominance continued at other meetings.
At that time Barcelona and Napoli clashed in the 2021-2022 Europa League play-offs. Barcelona again became a nightmare for the Italian giants with the same two-legged scenario. The difference was that when Barca drew 1-1 at home in the first leg before finally going on a 4-2 rampage away from home, the aggregate score was 5-3.
