sport news Barcelona 3-1 Napoli (agg 4-2): Robert Lewandowski's late strike erupts the ... trends now

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The celebration that greeted the third goal said it all – relief immense relief. Barcelona made it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time in four years thanks to a 3-1 home second leg win over Napoli sending them through 4-2 on aggregate.

When substitute Sergio Roberto played a one-two with Ilkay Gundogan inside the penalty area and then squared for Robert Lewandowski to score it seemed the whole Barça bench was on the pitch to mob the goalscorer. Hector Fort had been warming-up on the sidelines, he was in the thick of it. 

Iñigo Martinez was sat on the bench with Marc Guiu but both had sprinted into the middle of the huddle too join the festivities. Xavi hugged his coaching staff in the technical area. This wasn’t just Barcelona going through it was them keeping their season alive, and earning around 10m euros in the process – funds still desperately needed to keep the wolf of their excessive wage bill from the door.

It had been a nervy start to the game with Marc Andre Ter Stegen saving from Victor Osimhen after just four minutes when he ran in behind the home team’s defence.

Soon Barça’s teenagers began to take control. Pau Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal have no more than 33 years between them but both are now leaders of Xavi’s team.

One crunching tackle from Cubarsi on Osimhen cut the danger out at one end and he then played a sublime pass over the top of Napoli’s defence to put Fermin Lopez through at the other. The midfielder starting in the absence of the injured pair Frenkie de Jong and Pedri, sent his shot over the top.