In the Champions League, you play, but above all, you win. Episodic competition par excellence, it usually rewards the most effective and the strongest mentally. In the qualifiers you can be superior to your opponent with the ball, generate more chances, make a more beautiful game and end up watching the rest of the tournament on television. It is the championship of the areas, in which having a striker on a streak and a supreme goalkeeper can lead to the last rounds. If not, let them say it in Madrid with Courtois and Benzema in other seasons. For this reason, the Champions tend to put the rams under the magnifying glass. Barça and Napoli have two new capitals and their problems during the season serve to exemplify those of the whole team.
If Robert Lewandowski (35 years old) is inspired, Barcelona finds answers, even if in an agonizing way. If Victor Osimhen (25) is good, Naples is transformed. If the Italian team is another worse this season it is because the Nigerian is far from his numbers of the previous campaign and because he has not played with Napoli since December 23rd.
He then left for the Africa Cup of Nations, where Nigeria reached the final and lost. He played the entire competition affected by a virus and scored only one goal. He has now returned to Neapolitan discipline, but is physically affected. He was not included in the call-up against Genoa, but he is expected to play this evening, even if it is for an hour. Naples needs him the most. He has eight goals, which is not much compared to the 31 he achieved last season, but his presence alone is already a threat. At any moment, their verticality, their power and their stride can reappear. Barça will have to be careful with him, if they don't want the same thing to happen to them as happened to San Mamés in the Cup. That day, in extra time, he scored a decisive goal for Athletic Iñaki Williams, who had flown into the game straight from the Africa Cup.
In Bilbao, Lewandowski also scored that night, who is picking up the thread of the season after a few really opaque months. Now he has scored three matches, as he did in January. Not much considering how voracious his career has been, but important if it is limited to the present. The Pole is seen more awake and with some of the reflexes in the area that made him famous. With Barcelona he scored 50 goals in 79 games, one more than Henry and two more than Villa in far fewer games. But, of course, the Frenchman and the Asturian were part of a powerful Barça and both have a Blaugrana Champions in the showcase.
Lewandowski and Osimhen have contracts beyond this season with their two clubs, but none of them can guarantee that they will continue at Barça and Naples. Especially the Nigerian, with significant offers. And more considering that PSG will need to sign a top class striker. If he doesn't go to Paris, they also await him with open arms at the Premier League. His team knows they have to trade him this summer. His starting price would be 130 million. Barça, if they were interested, could not now approach an operation of this kind. For now, he's content not to wake up today.
