Napoli Vs Barcelona: Priority & Inconsistency in Champions League

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Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:03 How much of a factor is that when teams organize and you know that Napoli is going to prioritize

00:09 their Champions League, you know, matchup against Barcelona?

00:12 It's a huge factor, especially when you're thinking about round of 16 and like this time of year,

00:21 even in the group stages, it's a very important thing too. As you get later in the tournament,

00:25 it's less true because when you're that close to winning, you obviously are going to prior...

00:30 Everybody's prioritizing Champions League. But in this situation, what makes this matchup so close,

00:37 I think, is that Barcelona is in a very similar position as well. They're third in La Liga,

00:43 but they're 10 points away from Real Madrid, almost certainly not going to catch them.

00:48 But they've got enough of a cushion now in terms of those Champions League places that they're

00:52 feeling a little better about that than they were a few weeks ago. So I think Barcelona are in a

00:56 very similar situation. They're also out of Copa del Rey. So this is the big trophy left on the

01:02 table for them as well. And the thing about these two teams, they've both been remarkably

01:07 inconsistent this season. So that's probably another reason you see the close odds. Barcelona,

01:13 you know, riding the ship after some crazy, crazy drama, the whole Xavi announcing his exit at the

01:20 end of the season. And then they play this 3-3 draw with Granada over the weekend, a team that is

01:26 in the relegation scrap in La Liga. And they're conceding three goals to them as well. So it just

01:35 it feels like you can either see this great Barcelona where you see all the talent and you see

01:40 the pieces that can guide them forward. And then it's two steps backwards. And they're leaking goals

01:46 at the back and they're inconsistent and they're losing confidence. And so it's hard to say which

01:51 one will show up. But I'm really excited just as a neutral and a game that really could go either way.

01:58 [MUSIC]