Barcelona have cruised into the Champions League quarter finals, thanks to a 3-1 second leg win at home to Napoli.

Quqiue Setien’s side will now face Bayern Munich in the last eight on August 14, in their 13th consecutive Champions League quarter final appearance.

Despite ending as 4-2 aggregate winners, it was not all plain sailing for Setien’s side, with Dries Mertens inches away from putting the visitors in front in the opening stages.

French international, Clement Lenglet calmed the hosts nerves on 10 minutes, powering home a header from Ivan Rakitic’s corner.

Barcelona looked to move through the gears from there, as Lionel Messi made it 2-0 on 23 minutes, curling home from just inside the Napoli area.

The first half ended in dramatic fashion, with Messi having a goal ruled out by VAR for handball, before both sides were awarded penalties in added time.

Luis Suarez put the home side 3-0 in front, after a foul on Messi, but Lorenzo Insigne handed the Serie A side a lifeline, as he tucked home from the spot.

Napoli took the game to Barcelona after the break, with Insigne forcing a smart reaction stop from Marc Ter Stegen.

Gattuso brought on Arkadiusz Milik and Hiving Lozano in the closing stages to inject some attacking intent into his side, with the latter twice hitting the woodwork.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.