In the Champions League you play, but, above all, you win. Episodic competition par excellence, it usually rewards the most effective and the mentally strongest. In the playoffs you can be superior to your opponent with the ball, create more chances, be prettier, 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 roll and a supreme goalkeeper can lead to the last rounds. If not, let them tell Madrid with Courtois and Benzema in other seasons. That’s why the Champions League usually puts strikers under the microscope. Barça and Naples have two capital nines and their problems during the season serve to exemplify those of the entire team.
If Robert Lewandowski (35 years old) hits the mark, Barcelona will find answers, even if it is agonizing. If Victor Osimhen (25) is fine, Napoli will transform. If the Italian team is different, worse, this season it is because the Nigerian is very far from his numbers from the previous season and because he has not played with Naples since last December 23.
Then he went to the Africa Cup, where Nigeria reached the final and lost. He played the entire competition handicapped by a virus and only scored one goal. He has now returned to the Neapolitan discipline, but he has done so physically affected. He was not included in the squad against Genoa, but he is expected to play this Wednesday, not even for an hour. Naples needs it like eating. He has eight goals, which is not many compared to the 31 he achieved last year, but his presence in itself already poses a threat. At any moment his verticality, his power and his stride can reappear. Barça will have to be careful with him, if they do not want the same thing that happened to them in San Mamés in the Cup to happen to them. That day, in extra time, Iñaki Williams scored a decisive goal for Athletic, who had flown into the game directly from the Africa Cup.
In Bilbao, Lewandowski also scored that night, who is getting the hang of the season after some really opaque months. He has now accumulated three games scoring, as he already did in January. Peccata minuta taking into account how voracious his career has been, but important if he limits himself to the present. The Pole looks more awake and has some of the reflexes in the area that made him famous. With Barcelona he has 50 goals in 79 games, one more than Henry and two more than Villa in much fewer games. But of course, the Frenchman and the Asturian were part of a powerful Barça and both have a Blaugrana Champions League in their showcase.
Lewandowski and Osimhem have contracts beyond this season with their two clubs, but neither of them can guarantee that they will remain at Barça and Naples. Especially the Nigerian, with important offers. And even more so considering that PSG will need to sign a quality striker. If he doesn’t go to Paris, the Premier League will also wait for him with open arms. His team knows that this summer they have to do business with him. His starting price would be 130 million. Barça, if it were interested, could not now undertake an operation of this type. For now he is content with not waking up today.
