Europa League: Barcelona and Napoli players display ‘Stop War’ banner after Russia invades Ukraine

Also as sporting fraternity messages against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Spanish giants Barcelona and Italy’s Napoli held up a banner ahead of their Europa League game on Thursday. Players from both sides held up a banner reading ‘Stop War’ ahead of their high-profile match at the Diego Maradona Stadium in Napoli.

“The message is a united condemnation of Russian military action against Ukraine,” Barcelona said in a statement.

In particular, Russia’s tennis star No. 1 in the world Daniil Medvedev also spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine and said he wanted to see peace around the world.

It’s not the first time that FC Barcelona has made such a gesture before a football match. In 2003, before a game with Racing Santander, the team wore white jerseys reading “Barça for Peace” to show their opposition to the war in Iraq and there was also a banner.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday despite multiple sanctions from the West and other nations. The US has decided to take in refugees fleeing the Russian invasion. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the 27-block NATO was afraid to admit his country to the global body.

Barcelona, ​​on the other hand, were ruthless on the field as they defeated Napoli 4-2 and advanced to the Europa League Round of 16 with a 5-3 aggregate score.

Ordi Alba put Barca ahead in the eighth minute of the knockout rounds play-off second leg with a rare swipe to his weaker right foot and Frenkie de Jong put the Catalans further ahead with a curl shot after he had been hoeed by Ferran Torres .

Lorenzo Insigne’s penalty gave Napoli hope but Gerard Pique restored Barca’s two-goal lead just before half-time.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added a fourth in the second half and scored for the fourth time in two games after scoring a hat-trick in LaLiga at Valencia on Sunday. Matteo Politano reduced the gap to two goals in the 87th.