It wasn’t even that Napoli did anything wrong. It created chances. Its passing completion percentage was exactly the same as Barcelona’s. In fact, Napoli shaded possession against a team not often beaten in that area. And still Napoli lost 3-1 Saturday and 4-2 on aggregate. Because the other team had Lionel Messi and they didn’t. This is the cruel, zero-sum arithmetic that is necessary for Messi to exist. There is only one of him, and therefore only one team can have him.
That team remains Barca. And in Saturday’s resumption of the Champions League round of 16 tie between his side and Napoli, a full five and a half months since the 1-1 tie in Naples in the first leg, Messi was magnificent.