Barcelona and Napoli will lock horns at Camp Nou in the knockout round play-offs of the Europa League this Thursday, in a contest that one would usually expect in the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

Barcelona made it to this competition for the first time since 2004 following a 3rd place finish in Group E of the Champions League behind Bayern Munich and Benfica but ahead of Dynamo Kiev.

In terms of the Spanish top flight, the club occupies 4th position, fifteen points behind league leaders and arch rivals Real Madrid.

Napoli meanwhile, had to settle for 2nd position in their group in the Europa League as they finished behind Spartak Moscow, despite being level on points.

In Serie A the club is in the midst of an intense three horse race for the league title in 3rd position behind AC Milan and Inter Milan.

The club will head into the fixture in fine form as they are undefeated in six league games, through four wins and two draws.
All but one of Barça’s previous five league matches have involved a minimum of four goals. Moreover, the average combined score line in Napoli’s fixtures in the group stages of this campaign is four per game. Therefore expect at least three goals from this fixture.



译文(自动翻译仅供参考):

巴塞罗那和那不勒斯将在本周四的欧冠淘汰赛附加赛中在诺坎普交锋，这是一场人们通常会在欧冠淘汰赛中看到的比赛。

自2004年以来，巴塞罗那首次晋级欧冠小组赛。此前，巴塞罗那在欧冠E组排名第三，落后于拜仁慕尼黑和本菲卡，但领先于基辅迪纳摩。

在西班牙顶级联赛中，俱乐部排名第四，落后联赛领头羊和劲敌皇家马德里15分。

与此同时，那不勒斯在欧罗巴联赛中只得到了小组第二的位置，尽管他们的积分和莫斯科斯巴达克持平。

在意甲联赛中，这家俱乐部正处于激烈的三场争夺联赛冠军的竞赛之中，排名第三，仅次于AC米兰和国际米兰。

俱乐部将以良好的状态进入这场比赛，他们在六场联赛中保持不败，四胜两平。
在Barça之前的五场联赛中，除了一场以外，所有的比赛都有至少四个进球。此外，在本赛季的小组赛阶段，那不勒斯的平均总得分是4个。因此，期待至少三个进球从这场比赛。