A second half penalty from Ferran Torres following a contentious VAR decision rescued a draw for Barcelona against Napoli in their Europa League tie at the Camp Nou.
Piotr Zielinski opened the scoring for the visitors just before the half-hour mark after a flowing counter-attacking move, culminating in the Polish international netting at the second attempt.
Torres netted from the spot following a controversial decision which saw Juan Jesus’s accidental handball punished via an intervention from VAR.
Barca may have been let off the hook by that decision but they spurned multiple opportunities to win the game, with former Man City forward Torres culpable of passing up several chances.
Mirror Football looks at the five main talking points as Barca played their first Europa League match in 18 years.
Anonymous Aubameyang
This was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first start for Barcelona since joining the club on a free transfer from Arsenal, but things did not go to plan.
The Gabonese striker was anonymous for almost all of his 84 minutes on the pitch, before he was replaced by Luuk de Jong as Barca searched for a late winner.
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Aubameyang started centrally in a front three with Ferran Torres and Adama Traore either side of him, but his fellow new arrivals were involved in much more of the action.
This was Aubameyang’s first start in a club match since 5 December so his lack of match sharpness may be understandable, but Blaugrana fans will be hopeful he gets up to speed as soon as possible.
Torres highs and lows
It was a night of mixed fortunes for Ferran Torres, who netted the penalty that drew Barcelona level early in the second half but who missed multiple openings in open play.
The most damaging of all was when the Spain international fired wide of goal when excellently placed just moments before Napoli opened the scoring.
It was Barca’s best opening during the match but Torres – who had netted just once in his first five Barca outings since joining from Manchester City – was less than clinical.
He then spurned a glorious opportunity with three minutes of normal time remaining as his effort curled wide of goal following superb build-up play from the hosts.
Barca fans will be hopeful that netting the penalty will act as a launch pad for the 21-year-old’s career at Camp Nou.
Zielinski shows true class
Piotr Zielinski netted the opener for Napoli, completing a fine team move after his initial effort was well-stopped by Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.
Zielinski signed a new contract with Napoli back in the summer of 2020, but only after he had rejected interest from Barcelona.
The Catalan club held talks with the Polish international’s representatives but the player ultimately decided to remain in Italy, where he has resided since being a 16-year-old.
He has recently received praise from no other than Diego Maradona Jr, who said: "In my opinion, he's one of the best midfielders in all of Europe in his position. He's an important player and a leader at Napoli. He fascinates me and I can say I'm proud that he plays for a club that I like."
Now aged 27, Zielinski is now showing his class both in Serie A and the European stage.
Dembele’s hostile reception
Ousmane Dembele was widely whistled and booed by the home crowd at Camp Nou when he came on as a substitute midway through the second half.
The Frenchman is out of contract at Barca at the end of the current campaign with extension talks at a standstill between him and the club – while his anticipated exit in January did not occur.
The Blaugrana faithful made their feelings clear on Thursday night in the first match that Dembele played at the Camp Nou since the January fallout.
Dembele’s future remains unclear but it is now evident that he will not get an easy ride from his own club’s fans unless he starts finding the net regularly.
De Jong as Busquets successor
Barca’s awful Euro home record
Barcelona have endured an awful recent record at the Camp Nou in European competition.
They had won just one of their last five Champions League home matches – a scrappy 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev in the group stages of this season’s competition.
That group stage also saw them fall to a three-goal home defeat to Bayern Munich – when they did not register a shot on target – while they were held to a scoreless draw by Benfica.
Furthermore, they fell to heavy defeats against Juventus (0-3) and Paris Saint-Germain (1-4) at the tail end of the previous campaign’s European ventures.
To put into perspective how bad that was, they were previously 38 European matches unbeaten at Camp Nou – a run that yielded 34 victories for the Catalan club.
