In the Champions League last 16, two of the biggest basketball clubs will compete against each other tonight. And with neither side able to foresee the consequences of an early exit from Europe, the stakes have been raised much higher than in any other knockout game at this stage.
Barcelona and Napoli both won their leagues last season, but the spiral has been downward since then. And for those who are knocked out: the descent only gets steeper and faster.
This was supposed to be the tie as the losing club fired their coach, but Napoli have already torn that story up, only to get an early dismissal and hiring.
Walter Mazzarri was fired on Tuesday just 24 hours before tonight’s match.
As for Xavi, can you fire a man who has already retired? Well, you can, because Xavi quit because he knew he was being sacked after losing 5-3 at home to Villarreal in January.
Barcelona travel to Naples on Wednesday for the first leg of their round of 16 tie
The Catalans have already announced that Xavi will leave the club at the end of the season
Napoli fired Walter Mazzarri on Tuesday after a dismal run of form
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He is only allowed to stay until the end of the season because of who he is according to president Joan Laporta, and it is a favor that will be undone if it starts to look like he will remain in charge until the summer leaving Barcelona without European football next season.
Laporta and his counterpart Aurelio de Laurentiis are currently engaged in a long-distance game of ‘crazy President Top Trumps’. Laporta probably thinks his mood in the hospitality industry after a recent home game with soon-to-be relegated Granada, which saw him knock over a tray of spring rolls, was crazy enough.
But De Laurentiis saw the canapé carnage and said, “Hold my beer.” Not only did he change the club’s manager this week, he also hired the new man, with the soon-to-be-fired man attending the club’s penultimate training session ahead of tonight’s match.
If there’s one thing that separates the two clubs, it’s the fans’ attitude to so much chaos. In Barcelona they are politely ashamed of it. In Naples they embrace it.
They’re already talking about how Roberto Di Matteo took over Chelsea in the last 16 in 2012 and went on to win the Champions League.
Mazzarri only won six games in 17 matches, so he had to leave. And they see his replacement Francesco Calzona as a return to the good old days under Maurizio Sarri and Luciano Spalletti, having worked as an assistant under both.
He started his press conference on Tuesday by thanking the Slovak Football Association for allowing him to take the job while also staying on as manager. And again, anything that one side can do strangely, the other side can do even stranger.
Napoli won the Serie A title for the first time in 33 years last season and played scintillating football along the way
Victor Osimhen has failed to match last season’s great form and has been involved in a number of public altercations this season
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has already fired two managers this season
Francesco Calzona (right) has taken over from Mazzarri until the end of the season
When Frenkie de Jong sat down in front of the media, he ranted about the journalists sitting in front of him. “Don’t be ashamed to write things that are simply not true,” he said.
His rant was a reference to claims he would earn as much as £34 million (€40 million). Secrecy over players’ salaries (encouraged by the players themselves) means it’s difficult to know if he has a case.
Some journalists close to the club claim he earns £17 million (€20 million) and because the club has to pay his tax bill that costs them £34 million – so perhaps the old ‘net’ ‘gross’ problem is causing the confusion.
De Jong may be right when he says the stories about his top earners are part of a campaign to make him feel uncomfortable and make him more likely to accept a transfer in the summer. Barcelona are forced to sell after LaLiga set their latest salary cap at just £174m. 204 million), which is approximately £171 million (€200 million) below their current wage bill.
Napoli’s players are also not satisfied this season. In their disastrous defense of their first Scudetto in 33 years, their star players Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osihmen were often treated as recent loanees rather than the legends who lifted the trophy last season.
The former was substituted and replaced by the coach who started the campaign, Rudi Garcia, and the latter was upset by Napoli’s internal media team when they posted a bizarre video ridiculing Osimhen for missing a penalty in a 0-0 draw against Bologna – it appeared on Napoli’s official TikTok account.
It is still not clear whether it was the club’s social media manager who went rogue or was part of a wider conflict between the player and his president after Napoli accepted a bid from Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal in the summer had rejected.
“It wouldn’t be enough to buy the Nigerian striker’s left foot,” the president said at the time. The way Napoli have played this season, you could buy the entire team for £171 million right now.
They are ninth, nine points clear of the Champions League places. Their third coach of the season is likely to put all his faith in Kvaratskhelia and Osimen tonight, with the latter apparently now fit again after a combination of the African Cup of Nations and injuries had kept him out of action since December.
Barcelona won LaLiga last season in Xavi’s second season in charge
Ilkay Gundogan (middle left) arrived as a free agent in the summer, as Barcelona looked to curb their spending due to ongoing financial problems
Barcelona are better positioned in the rankings and are in third place with five points in the top four.
They are less likely to miss out on a Champions League finish, which is good work because they need it even more than Napoli – with the small problem of a wage bill that is twice what the Spanish league says it should be . .
All this makes tonight’s match and the return match in three weeks even more important.
If Barcelona makes it to the quarter-finals, Xavi can stick to his current mantra that things aren’t that bad (he said this weekend that his team should be top of the La Liga in terms of Big Data!).
Frenkie de Jong called journalists out of the closet during an explosive press conference on Tuesday
Napoli could focus on trying to work their way up the table, but it will be like a pinprick to the bubble of excitement that has greeted Mazzarri’s dismissal.
If Barcelona are eliminated, Xavi is likely to join Mazzarri in the job market, with Laporta turning to B team coach Rafa Marquez to take charge until the end of the season.
There is a pool of relatively calm water waiting for whichever team can safely swim to the other side. They must first navigate the choppy waters of the next 180 minutes of football.