Napoli coach Gennaro Gattuso and striker, Arkadiusz Milik assure Napoli have “no fear” going into the Champions League Round of 16 against FC Barcelona.
The La Liga giant will have to clash with the Italian side in the next round of the prestigious club competition as announced by UEFA during the draw yesterday.
Napoli will welcome Barca at the Stadio San Paolo on February 25, with the return scheduled for Camp Nou on March 18.
Gattuso told the official Napoli Twitter account that his lads will be up against a great team, which is a huge challenge and two fascinating games, but will face the Spanish giant without fear.
This will be Gattuso’s Champions League debut as a coach, after taking over from sacked coach Carlo Ancelotti last week who qualified them for the knockout stage of the prestigious tournament.
Also reiterating the message, Milik via his Instagram page respected the five time s champions, but there won’t be any fear, saying “See you at the San Paolo.”
Also reacting to the draw, Barcelona director Guillermo Amor describes Napoli as a complicated opponent, adding that it would be disrespectful to say it would be an easy game against Gattuso’s men.
Amor who had played for Atalanta during his playing days is ignoring the Partenopei’s poor domestic form. While stating that all the games will be hard, he said Barca knew who they could be drawn against.
Speaking with Movistar+, Amor, who said perhaps they could have been drawn against another team, adding that all the games would be hard.
While noting that they have recently changed their manager, he said Barca would go there to get a good result and return to the Camp Nou to close the tie.
Speaking on the noisy Napoli fans, he said the Catalans would not be affected by the atmosphere at the San Paolo as Barcelona “prefer” a loud stadium.
He stated that he always loved the team to play in a full and noisy stadium and the players prefer that to a cold stadium, even if the noise is against them.
See other draws of the Champions League below,
February 18: Borussia Dortmund v Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid v Liverpool
February 19: Atalanta v Valencia, Tottenham v RB Leipzig
February 25: Chelsea v Bayern Munich, Napoli v Barcelona
February 26: Real Madrid v Manchester City, Lyon v Juventus
March 10: Valencia v Atalanta, RB Leipzig v Tottenham
March 11: Paris Saint-Germain v Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool v Atletico Madrid
March 17: Manchester City v Real Madrid, Juventus v Lyon
March 18: Bayern Munich v Chelsea, Barcelona v Napoli
FC Barcelona are priced at 6.00 to win the 2019/20 Champions League, while Napoli are available at 92.00
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed
