Barcelona :Galatasaray held Barcelona to a goalless draw in the first leg of round-of-16 UEFA Europa League match at the Camp Nou on Friday ( March 11). The Spanish side rained attacks on the Turkish side but to vain.
Xavi’s men booked a place in the last 16, after defeating Napoli in a 5-3 aggregrate. The Catalan side defeated Napoli 4-2 in the second leg away from, thus maintaining their unbeaten streak.
Barcelona dominated possession all throughout the first half, but were unable to open scoring. The match ended in a 0-0 draw, as Barcelona would travel to Turkey to play the decisive second leg, to decide who would advance to the next round in Champions League.
The Catalan side had 14 attempts on goal as compared to the three by the visitors. However, Inaki Pena the Barcelona goalkeeper who has been loaned to Galatasaray, stood like a wall making a handfull of amazing saves to keep the scoreline intact.
As Barcelona, were looking for an opener Ousmane Dembele’s shot skied over the bar in the second half, shortly afterwards Frenkie de Jong’s shot hit the post as nothing seem to work in favour of the Spanish side. However, Galatasaray almost grabbed a goal for themselves but Bafetimbi Gomis shot on 78 minutes was ruled out due to offside.
Barcelona will travel to Turkey on March 17, to play out the second leg which will decide the team that would advance to the semi-finals of the Europa League.
