Khvicha Kvaratskhelia displayed evident anger, while Napoli supporters voiced their discontent as the Georgian player was substituted early during the Champions League clash against Barcelona at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Napoli found themselves trailing 1-0 to a Robert Lewandowski goal, failing to produce a single shot, let alone one on target.
The decision to replace Kvaratskhelia with Jesper Lindstrom at the 68th minute, made by new coach Francesco Calzona, came unexpectedly given the circumstances.
Similar substitutions occurred in the past under coaches Rudi Garcia and Walter Mazzarri, albeit not as early in such significant matches.
Kvaratskhelia appeared genuinely surprised as he left the field and circled around the athletics track to return to the bench, notably without exchanging handshakes with Calzona.
The crowd expressed dissatisfaction as Jens Cajuste was replaced by January acquisition Hamed Junior Traore.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
GeorgiaThis season he played in total 7 times for 583 minutes for Champions League.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia didn’t score any goal for Napoli. He procured one assist. He received no yellow cards and no red cards.
His team is currently 9th in Champions League. In the last match Napoli drew 1-1 against FC Barcelona.
Napoli performance and stats
Napoli is currently 2nd in the Champions League with 10 points.
In the last 7 games, it has won 3 times, drawn twice, and lost twice. In its last match, Napoli drawn 1-1 against FC Barcelona.
It has a positive goal difference after scoring 10 goals and conceding 9.
