Ferran Torres’s first goal for Barcelona levels up Napoli tie

There were five minutes to go when Luuk de Jong was introduced at the Camp Nou and maybe it should have been more. Barcelona were drawing 1-1 with Napoli in their first game in this competition for two decades, seeking the goal that would give them a lead for the second leg in Italy. They almost got it too, the Dutch striker they had tried to move on in the winter coming closer in a frantic finale than anyone else had done in the previous 85 minutes.

In the end, though, De Jong’s comic-book moment wasn’t quite enough, his overhead kick flashing just past the post, and Barcelona ran out of time. Ferran Torres scored the penalty that levelled things after Piotr Zielinski gave Napoli the lead, but he above all will reflect on the ones that got away on a night when Barcelona and Napoli were playing for a place in a competition that they aspire to avoid.

“It annoys me to hear the Champions League anthem and not be part of it,” Xavi had said. Instead, he stood before this game at an unusual time, listening to an unusual anthem and watching his team join Napoli in taking the knee, which was unusual too. Barcelona had not played on a Thursday night in Europe’s second competition since they faced Celtic in 2004.

The opponents, though, were more familiar – Napoli and Barcelona had met in the last sixteen of the Champions League just two years ago – and there were 73,500 in the Camp Nou, 5,000 or so of those from Italy, a sense that this did matter and a sound to match. Xavi had called it an opportunity, a trophy this club had never won and one that might allow them to take a Champions League place far from certain via La Liga. Luciano Spalletti felt the same, no concessions made in his line-up.

There was an intensity about