FC Barcelona to face Napoli in the Europa League

FC Barcelona now know their opponents in this season's UEFA Europa League play off. The draw took place on Monday in Nyon, Switzerland and it saw Serie A side Napoli drawn against Barça in this stage of the competition. 

The tie will be played over two legs and the first game will be at Camp Nou on Thursday 17 February at 6.45pm CET with the second leg at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium a week later on 24 February, kick off at 9pm CET. 

The rest of the draw for the play off round is as follows: 

• Sevilla v Dynamo Zagreb
• Atalanta v Olympiacos 
• RB Leipzig v Real Sociedad
• Zenit v Betis 
• Borussia Dortmund v Rangers
• Sheriff v Braga 
• FC Porto v Lazio 

The play off round of the 2021/22 UEFA Europa League sees the eight teams who finished second in the group stage of the competition drawn against the eight sides who finished in third place in their respective UEFA Champions League groups. 

The winners of each play off tie will face one of the eight teams who finished top of their UEFA Europa League group as they pass directly to the last 16 stage of the competition. 

United by a famous face 

Napoli and Barça will face each other again after meeting for the first time in official competition in the last 16 of the 2019/20 Champions League. Barça went through on that occasion thanks to a 1-1 draw in Italy and a 3-1 win at Camp Nou.

The most famous player to have represented both clubs is Diego Armando Maradona. The stadium in Naples formerly known as the San Paolo stadium now bears the name of the Argentine who played for Barça between 1982 and 1984 before leaving for Italy.