It is a tie that would have made a fitting 2022 Europa League final.
Instead, two big clubs with passionate fanbases – one from Catalonia, the other from Naples – have been paired together in the first knockout phase of this season’s competition and that can only mean one thing: lots of Europa League highlights to enlighten what can be a miserable winter.
It is one side unceremoniously dumped out of the Champions League at the group stage given a second chance in Europe’s second-tier competition against a team that finished behind Spartak Moscow on head-to-head record in its Europa qualifying group.
One which is struggling domestically and too far adrift to challenge for the Spanish title against opponents who would have been top of Serie A but for collecting just a solitary point in its last three league matches.
One side is the second favourite to lift the trophy this season with the SBOTOP Europa League betting odds against another which is the sixth favourite.
Oh yes, and a meeting of two sides who were both graced by arguably the greatest player to have ever played the game.
For this is a clash between two of the late Diego Maradona’s former clubs.
Barcelona will host Napoli in the first leg on February 17 next year before playing away a week later.
Napoli were winners of the UEFA Cup (formerly Europa League) in 1989 with Maradona as captain and fittingly the second leg will be played in the stadium named in his honour.
As for Barcelona, what state they will be in two months from now is anyone’s guess.
The impending blow of Sergio Aguero’s enforced retirement is a setback, although club president Joan Laporta has insisted the club is moving in the right direction and the first team will be strengthened in January.
This week, Laporta asked supporters for unity in a 36-second video shared on social media.
Yet will reinforcements be possible given the statement from Laporta again recognised the challenges presented by the club’s financial situation with exits necessary before any signings can be made at Camp Nou.
Even new coach Xavi believes the club has a psychological issue to face rather than a football one with the former captain stressing he and his coaching staff are trying to lift spirits within the team and remind the players of the club’s objectives.
How Napoli, who have only faced Barca twice before in competition – the last 16 of the 2019/20 Champions League (a tie which Barca triumphed in 4-2 on aggregate) – would love to make their mark at this level once more.
That is the standout of eight play-off ties between teams who finished second in the Europa League groups against clubs who were third in the Champions League groups. The winners will join the eight Europa League group winners in the last 16, the draw for which will be held in February.
Elsewhere in the new format, Scottish champions Rangers will take on a Borussia Dortmund squad which includes young sensation Erling Braut Haaland, Jude Bellingham and Giovanni Reyna, whose father, Claudio, played for Rangers from 1999-2001.
Rangers were a distant second behind Lyon in their Europa League group and Dortmund finished behind Ajax and Sporting in their Champions League group.
Managed by Marco Rose after he switched from Borussia Moenchengladbach this summer, they only missed out on progressing to the top-tier knock-out stage via head-to-head goal difference with Sporting Lisbon as both finished well adrift of Ajax.
The other tie which jumps out to me is a meeting between Lazio and FC Porto, coached by the former Lazio midfielder Sergio Conseiçao.
The Dragones were in the same Champions League group as Milan and eliminated Juventus from Europe’s elite competition last term.
That match will evoke memories for some of 2003 when Jose Mourinho’s Porto overcame Roberto Mancini’s Lazio in the semi-finals of the competition.
What price another surprise against a Lazio side coached by Maurizio Sarri who won the Europa League while in charge of Chelsea in 2019?
The remaining play-off ties drawn were: Sevilla v Dinamo Zagreb, RB Leipzig v Real Sociedad, Zenit St Petersburg v Real Betis, Sheriff Tiraspol v Sporting Braga and Atalanta v Olympiakos.
At this stage it is always difficult to pick a winner but, with more than two months until the first leg, here goes:
Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Lazio, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, Real Betis, Sporting Lisbon and Atalanta.
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