In the early morning of February 18, Beijing time, the first leg of the Europa League knockout play-off, Barca lost the promotion opportunity in a 1-1 home draw with Napoli, of which Traore made a point, Ferran Torres scored a penalty + repeatedly missed a good opportunity, dembele played well off the bench. At 4:00 a.m. Beijing time on February 25, the second leg of the match between the two sides will be played at the Maradona Stadium.
In this campaign, Barca, who played at home, played well, shooting 21 feet in the whole game, but due to Ferran Torres's repeated missed opportunities, it can be said that the players themselves lost the opportunity to play a hat-trick, which is also the fundamental reason why Barça cannot beat Napoli at home. In this regard, Barca coach Xavi said in an interview: The addition of Ferran Torres has brought a lot of happiness to the team. Although he missed some opportunities, I am confident that Ferran Torres will overcome the difficulties he is encountering now and I am confident that he will continue to bring happiness to Barca.
Dembele's contract with Barca expired at the end of the season and the players were reluctant to renew their contract with Barca, so the French winger was booed by Barca's home fans when he replaced Traore in the 65th minute of the game. But Dembele played very well off the bench, passing the ball many times to make dangers. In this regard, Xavi also commented on Dembele in an interview after the game: Dembele is a very good player, in his eyes Dembele is still a Barca player, he has made many risks in the boos of fans, and won the applause again with excellent performance.
Personally, a healthy Dembele is far better than Traore, Xavi is right to continue to use Dembele, while the players are also doing their best on the field, this is professional football, and the player asking for a high salary without renewing the contract is not two different things.