Marado, Marado... Diego's spirit all over the place as Napoli and Barca face in the UEL skirmish
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Reading Time: 2min | Thu. 24.02.22. | 15:33
The world's best ever featured for both of those teams, and tonight's fixture will be played at the stadium named after him
You won't find many so UCL-eish games in the Europa League like this one. And it's not just, nor entirely for that Diego Maradona's narrative.
Napoli and Barcelona are favourites to win the entire competition, but one of them will have to leave at this station.
In Naples for the Diego Maradona derby between Napoli and Barcelona at the Diego Maradona stadium. They really do worship Diego Maradona, here's a piece of his hair in a bar #NapoliBarca pic.twitter.com/V4wJUw5COC
— Andrew Horgan (@AndrewHorgan) February 24, 2022
The first leg finished 1-1 at the Camp Nou, and the Italians are slight favourites to celebrate tonight after 90 minutes (or maybe some more) at the Estadio Diego Maradona.
As we already mentioned, it will be very much embellished with the much-present connections to the Argentine magician, who spent two seasons with the Blaugrana before making an unforgettable trace at Naples.
The last time Barcelona came to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, this happened… #Mertens
— SSC Nap⚽️li News (@SSCNapoliNews_) February 24, 2022
(📹 @sscnapoli)pic.twitter.com/8o2lVwqjRa
Following his death in November 2020, the Southerners changed the name of the stadium in his honour. Maradona himself deserves the most credit for Napoli's 1989 UEFA Cup trophy (Europa League predecessor), the only European accolade for the Blues.
Maradona and teammates celebrate the UEFA Cup win in 1989 (© Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)The only other times that Napoli faced Barcelona came in the 2019/20 season when they met in the Champions League Round of 16. The first leg finished 1-1 in the Campania capital, with the return leg ending 3-1 in Catalonia.
Napoli will therefore have to pull off their first-ever competitive victory over Barcelona to progress to the knock-out rounds.
UEFA Europa League - Playoff round, Second leg
Thursday
20.45 Real Sociedad - RB Leipzig
23.00 Rangers - Borussia Dortmund
23.00 Real Betis - Zenit St. Petersburg
23.00 Sporting Braga - FC Sheriff Tiraspol
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