Benfica 0-1 Barça: Recap
A resilient team performance and a huge away victory
Barcelona are off to a good start in the Champions League knockout stage thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win away to Benfica at the Estádio da Luz in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie on Wednesday night. Barça had to play the final 70 minutes with 10 men after Pau Cubarsí’s early red card, but Hansi Flick’s men showed remarkable resilience to resist Benfica’s pressure and Champions League Raphinha showed up again in a big European night and scored the winner to give Barça a huge result to take back home for next week’s second leg.
FIRST HALF
Benfica looked to make another fast start just like they did in their first meeting back in January and almost scored after 25 seconds when Aktürkoglu fired a shot looking for the corner, but Wojciech Szczesny made an amazing save for the visitors.
After surviving the (very) early scare Barça began to dominate possession and control the tempo of the game, with Frenkie de Jong and Pedri getting on the ball as often as possible to force Benfica to abandon their press and defend deep inside their half. Lamine Yamal looked a threat early on, and Barça created a huge chance that required an amazing triple save by Trubin against Yamal and Robert Lewandowski.
Barça were clearly the better side after 20 minutes and looked comfortable on the road, but everything changed in the 22nd minute when Pavlidis won the ball in the air and carried into the box before being taken out by Pau Cubarsí at the edge of the area. The referee had no choice but to show a straight red card to the young center-back for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, and the Blaugrana were suddenly down to 10 men.
Hansi Flick sent on Ronald Araujo in place of Dani Olmo to reorganize his defense, and Barça set up in a 4-4-1 shape looking to defend deep, deny spaces and use their pace on the wings in counter-attacking moments. Their defending was solid and Benfica let them off the hook at times by showing a lack of patient and ruining promising attacks with bad decisions in the attacking half, and the Catalans didn’t allow a big chance for quite a while.
But just before halftime they did when a cross aimed for Pavlidis ended up finding Aktürkoglu at the far post, but Szczesny was able to rise to the occasion once again and make a fantastic stop. Barça created a huge chance on the counter shortly after when Raphinha found himself in tons of space inside the box with a real chance to shoot, but he decided to pass instead and wasted a golden opportunity.
Then came a very controversial moment when Benfica midfielder Barreiro fouled Iñigo Martínez by using his studs to stomp the Barça defender’s leg, and he was very lucky to escape with only a yellow card. Barça players begged for a red or at least a VAR check, but were denied both and ended up with two yellow cards for dissent as Iñigo and Araujo complained a little too much to the referee.
The halftime whistle came to end a tense period that had a couple of big chances for both sides, but the story ahead of the second half was all about Barça trying to survive and take a positive result into the return leg with just 10 men.
SECOND HALF
Benfica made a strong start to the second half, looking a lot more poised in possession and creating plenty of danger on the right side of Barça’s defense, with left-back Carreras getting past Yamal multiple times to overload Jules Kounde and put cross into the box that led to big chances and a couple of more big saves by Szczesny.
Flick didn’t wait too long to act on the problem and replaced Yamal with Ferran Torres, switching Raphinha to the right wing and making sure both flanks were well covered defensively as Ferran used his fresh legs and gave Alejandro Balde plenty of help down the left.
Barça looked more solid defensively again soon after the change, and then came a gift: Benfica center-back António Silva gave the ball away to Raphinha with an awful pass at the edge of the box, and the Brazilian fired a rocket low and into the bottom corner to put the visotrs ahead at the hour mark.
Benfica coach Bruno Lage responded with two attacking changes that switched formations to a 4-2-4 with two big strikers in the middle and made the gameplan very simple for his players: apply plenty of pressure up front and send lots of balls into the area looking for Pavlidis and Belotti.
Flick’s reply was to send on Gerard Martín and Marc Casadó to solidify the backline even more and leave Ferran as the lone striker to use his pace on the counter. The Blaugrana also counted on Pedri to relieve some of the pressure as The Wizard worked his magic to keep the ball in small spaces and let the defense breathe for a few minutes, and Szczesny continued to step up and make important saves when called upon.
The Catalans looked in good shape as we reached the final 10 minutes, and Benfica’s desperation increased as the hosts struggled to find the equalizer. They almost got a penalty when Belotti went down after a dive by Szczesny and the referee pointed to the spot, but the offside flag saved Barça from further trouble.
Benfica threw everybody forward in the dying minutes looking for a late goal, but the Barça defense simply did not crumble and made crucial block after crucial block to keep the home team from finding the net. Szczesny made one more monster save at the death, and the final whistle came to give Barça a giant win on the road.
This was the epitome of resilience and team spirit. Winning away to Benfica and keeping a clean sheet with 10 men is as satisfying as it gets, and gives Barça a real chance to secure a quarterfinal spot next week.
We were all expecting the worst once Cubarsí was shown a straight red, but what unfolded create some real hope about what this team can do in the Champions League. With this fighting spirit and a player like Raphinha who seems destined for great European nights this season, this Barça team is truly capable of anything.
Benfica: Trubin; Araújo (Dahl 57’), Silva, Otamendi, Carreras; Barreiro (Belotti 70’), Aursnes, Kökçü (Sanches 84’); Aktürkoglu, Pavlidis (Cabral 84’), Schjelderup (Rego 70’)
Goals: None
Barcelona: Szczesny; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Balde; De Jong (Casadó 79’), Pedri; Yamal (Ferran 56’), Olmo (Araujo 28’), Raphinha; Lewandowski (Martín 79’)
Goals: Raphinha (61’)
Red Card: Cubarsí (22’)
Source: barcablaugranes.com
Post a Comment