England giants, Chelsea FC are hosting Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich while Barcelona is away to Napoli in a Uefa Champions League showdown tonight.
Chelsea and Bayern Munich’s last Champions League encounter was the 2012 final that was won 4-3 on penalties by the London side after the match had ended 1-1 at the extra time at Bayern’s Allianz Arena.
Meanwhile, tonight’s match will be the first competitive encounter between Napoli and Barcelona. Napoli were eliminated in their two previous European Cup/Champions League two-legged ties with Spanish opposition, both times against Real Madrid: 1-3 on aggregate in 1987/88 (first round) and 2-6 in 2016/17 (round of 16).
On the other hand, Barcelona’s last away win against Italian opposition in the Champions League knockout stages came in April 2006, when they beat AC Milan 1-0 and current Napoli manager Gennaro Gattuso played in that game for AC Milan.
Since then, Barcelona have failed to win any of their five such away trips to Italy (D1 L4) and have failed to score in the last four.
Speaking ahead of the clash, Gatusso praised Barcelona skipper, Lionel Messi saying that he is the greatest footballer of all time, greater than even his compatriot and highly regarded Diego Maradona.
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