Barcelona Face Napoli In Final Preseason Showdown

Barcelona play Napoli for the second time in three days on Saturday as the two sides face off in the United States at the Michigan Stadium.

With La Liga starting a week later than the Premier League, and the Serie A a week after that, both clubs still have time to put the finishing touches to their pre-season campaigns.

Both Ernesto Valverde and Carlo Ancelotti will be looking at fitness levels and performances as they piece together who will be in their plans for the upcoming season.

After Thursday’s edition of this match ended in a 2-1 win for the La Liga champions in Miami, Napoli play the “home” leg of the double-header in Detroit – a mere journey of almost 1,400 miles for both traveling squads.

The imminent start of Barcelona’s league season, which begins in the Basque Country against Athletic Bilbao on Friday, will only intensify the debate over the necessity and non-financial value of these tours, occasionally sparked by the complaints of the players and coaches involved.

Nevertheless, the novelty and allure of high-profile clubs locking horns in the build-up to the new season remain as entertaining as it is logistically baffling.

Barcelona have several points to prove and a diminishing amount of time in which to impress ahead of the new season, so their last outing of pre-season is an opportunity to make something of a statement against opponents whose style gave them problems on Thursday.

With new signing Antoine Griezmann looking to get among the goals alongside the proven quality of Suarez and the promising talent of Perez, Barca should have enough to breach the strong backline of opponents whose strikeforce faltered during the first of these two fixtures.

Head To Head
Surprisingly for two teams who are regulars in European competition, this pairing has never been made in a competitive fixture, and Thursday’s win for Barca was their first friendly meeting for five years.

A late error by current Manchester City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, who had just joined Barcelona at the time, gave Napoli a late win thanks to a Blerim Dzemaili goal in August 2014, although Barca were missing Suarez and Messi in attack.

As they did with their win over Arsenal last week, Barcelona won the Joan Gamper trophy by beating Napoli 5-0 in 2011, including an opening goal from Cesc Fabregas and a double from Messi.

POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Roberto, De Jong, Aleñá; Dembélé, Suárez, Griezmann

Napoli (4-4-2): Ospina; Hysaj, Manolas, Chiriches, Ghoulam; Malcuit, Allan, Fabián, Younes; Verdi, Milik