Real Madrid will face Napoli in the Last 16 Round of the Champions League. Los Blancos will play the first leg at Santiago Bernabéu and the second at San Paolo. The Italian side won their group with Benfica, Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev.
It wasn’t the best draw for Real Madrid but the Spanish side at least avoided difficult teams such as Juventus or Arsenal. The bad news are that Los Blancos will play the second leg in Italy, in a very difficult stadium like San Paolo. The first game will be played on the 15th of February and the second leg on the 7th of March.
Real Madrid played already against Napoli in the Last 16 Round in the Champions League. It was in 1987-88 and Maradona was playing for Napoli. Real Madrid won at Santiago Bernabéu (2-0) in a game played behind closed doors and famous for the great defence Chendo did to Maradona. In San Paolo, Real Madrid drew (1-1) and got into the next round of the competition.
Real Madrid will face some known faces. Former Real Madrid players José Callejón and Raúl Albiol will come back to Santiago Bernabéu. Napoli lost this summer Gonzalo Higuaín, his best players, but they still have great quality players such as Marek Hamsik or Milik, who is now injured but should be available in February.
However, Los Blancos could be happy about the draw. Last season, Real Madrid beat Roma in the Last 16 Round, another Italian team. The Spanish giants always struggle in Italy but they were able to win Roma (0-2) at the Olímpico. Now, Napoli are out of the first positions in the Serie A table and are still to find the best performance.
Real Madrid have more experience in the competition and the arrived to the semifinals of the Champions League in the last years. For this reason, we should be optimistic about Los Blancos performance and think they could beat Napoli and go through the quarter finals.
All the fixtures in the Last 16 Round are:
Real Madrid – Napoli
PSG – Barcelona
Leverkusen – Atlético Madrid
Sevilla – Leicester City
Porto – Juventus
Bayern Múnich – Arsenal
Benfica – Borussia Dortmund
Manchester City – Mónaco
