Barcelona players celebrate
Barcelona players celebrate

Despite the home side creating numerous chances, Napoli held firm to play out a 1-1 draw at Camp Nou against Barcelona in their Europa League knockout playoff.

Napoli got the first goal of the tie in the 29th minute as Piotr Zielinski smashed an effort on the rebound into the roof of the net from inside the box after his initial shot was saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Barcelona were then awarded a penalty following a VAR check after Juan Jesus handled the ball in the box.

Ferran Torres made no mistake and buried the spot-kick to Alex Meret’s right to put the Blaugrana back on level terms.

Tiredness set in for Luciano Spalletti’s side as the game went on, as they invited pressure from Barcelona by sitting deep.

However, despite the one-way traffic in the dying moments, Napoli just held on to seal a draw as the sides head back to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for the second leg.