Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images

A strong team performance and a solid result on the road Barcelona have begun their journey in the Champions League knockout stages with a solid result on the road thanks to a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Napoli at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Wednesday night in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie. Barça were the better team for most of the night and earned a one-goal lead through solid attacking play, but one poor defensive moment cost them a victory and the tie is still wide open ahead of the second leg in three weeks.
FIRST HALF
Barça made a strong start on the road, quickly establishing themselves in the Napoli half and moving the ball well between the lines to find spaces inside the hosts? backline. Lamine Yamal and Ilkay Gündogan were the biggest threats early, and when Pedri and Robert Lewandowski got more involved the Blaugrana became even more dangerous up front. Yamal was the first to test Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret with a shot from distance, then Lewandowski had a very good chance inside the area and Gündogan fired a rocket from the edge of the box that would have found the top corner, but Meret made three excellent saves to deny the opening goal.
The first 30 minutes belonged to Barça but the Catalans couldn?t find the breakthrough, and Napoli finally managed to get forward and have more of the ball towards the end of the half. The hosts never came close to making Marc-André ter...