Even without Messi, it will be super showdown
MIAMI — As FC Barcelona and SSC Napoli prepare to face off on Wednesday night, the clubs are in similar situations. Barcelona is coming off a year in which it won La Liga while Napoli finished second in Serie A, and both teams are now gearing up for the UEFA Champions League group stage.
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique thinks the similarities extend to the field as well.
“For Napoli, he believes it’s very similar to Barcelona,” a translator said of Pique’s comments. “Because they control the ball very well and the performance and the control of the goals is very similar to theirs.”
Pique and Barcelona will find out for sure Wednesday night when they take on Napoli as part of the La Liga-Serie A Cup at Hard Rock Stadium. The Cup, which is in its inaugural iteration, is an annual home and away series pitting teams from the two European leagues against each other.
A second match will be held at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on August 10.
Wednesday’s match admittedly lost a big chunk of its star power however, after Barcelona’s Lionel Messi injured his calf during a training session on Monday. Messi, an international superstar, is one of the most popular athletes
on the planet and draws attention wherever he goes.
He had played at Hard Rock Stadium once before in a rivalry matchup against Real Madrid in 2017. That game drew more than 66,000 fans, not to mention 35,000 people who paid to watch the teams practice the day before the game.
But Messi will not be a part of this trip, having remained in Spain, and Pique suggested that there are simply too many matches on the slate to expect stars to be healthy for all of them.
“He hopes he recovers soon for sure,” a translator said of Pique’s comments. “They’re getting more and more less breaks so when a player gets an injury, it’s very difficult for them to be in all the matches and there’s a probability that this can happen again if the breaks are shorter and shorter.”
Despite technically being around the start of a new season, it’s true that Barcelona has been busy. Wednesday’s matchup will not even be the team’s first game this month, and their time in both La Liga and the Champions League just wrapped up in May.
But the team is still focused on getting a win against Napoli, which is managed by Carlo Ancelotti.
“Ancelotti, his experihim,” ence is very relevant,” Pique said through a translator “And he made a lot of achievements. That’s why he’s where he is.”
Ancelotti has managed a number of prestigious teams, and has won the Champions League three different times.
While he is obviously with Napoli now, he hinted on Tuesday that he might not be opposed to eventually joining Inter Miami, the incoming MLS team that is owned by one of his former players, David Beckham.
“Beckham is my friend, he was my player. I have a good relationship with he said. “I don’t know my future … but MLS is improving in the last few years. It’s improving and so it could be, in the future, a good experience.”
He did point out that he is still currently under contract with Napoli, which is ready for the opportunity to try to notch a win against a talent like Barcelona.
“They’re very happy to be playing,” a translator said of Ancelotti’s comments. “And they are gonna be putting their best effort and playing with the highest quality.”
The game will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.