Barcelona is the Champions League quarter-finals within 90 minutes of the hard-fought 1-0 win on Wednesday against Benfica in Lisbon.
Hansi Flicks Barcelona played three quarters of the game with one player after Pau Comatsi was sent out of the way in the middle of the first half, but Raphinha was able to win it.
Wojciech Szczesny also achieved great performance in the goal to underpin the victory.
How the game unfolds
Things started at 100 km / h when Szczesny took out a brilliant rescue of Kerem Akturkoglu in the opening minute and reacted to a shot from the Benfica winger to tip him away. Both sides had more half -chances in the early exchange before Barcelona settled into the dominant role.
Benfica had the goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin had for the fact that things maintain the level as goalkeeper of the Ukrainians, who somehow deny Dani Olmo, Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal.
In the middle of the first half, Barca was reduced to ten players. Pau Comatarsi was considered guilty to deny Vangelis Pavlidis an opportunity after the Benfica striker was planned through the middle. The decision on the field was the red card and Var agreed.
Szczesny held the resulting free kick from Orkun Kokcu with a strong rescue, whereby the dynamics clearly shifted in Benficas thanks to her husband. The veteran Barcelona goalkeeper had to be vigilant to prevent Andreas Schjeldup from being shaped on a dangerous ball before another great stop parried in the final phase of the first half and the header of Akturkoglu.
In the second half and Pavlidis, a good chance of Alvaro Carreras’ reduction on the left side and may earn the advantage of doubt due to a slight distraction on the cross into the box.
Despite the reduction, Benfica was regretted that this was missed almost immediately. Just a few minutes later, Raphinha Barcelona put the lead against the run of the game. Antonio Silva had picked up in Benfica’s half, which was picked up by Raphinha, who thrown the ball forward and drilled a deep shot into the lower corner of Trubins gate from 25 meters.
Benfica knew that after a golden opportunity at home against an exhausted Barcelona, her chance slipped away. Bruno Lage put on the experienced Italian striker Andrea Belotti and gave clear instructions to advance numbers. Flick went into the opposite path and tried to preserve the slim leadership and to put on defense attorney Gerard Martin for Robert Lewandowski.
Belotti desperately opposed a punishment in the final phase when he tried to round Szczesny to around the flag off the flag, whether it was irrelevant or not. Barca then survived a worrying flood from Benfica corners when the interruption period approached, while Szczesny’s 94th minute before the replacement Renato Sanches saw through his team until victory.
Take a look at Benfica’s player reviews against Barcelona.
At the age of 18 and 42 days, Paubersi is now the youngest player who has ever been sent in a knockout game of the Champions League. We speak of really fine margins because the Barca interior defender, who had Vangelis Pavlidis broke the line of defense, was actually put into the position to intervene.
Comlidis caught up with Pavlidis and managed to hang his leg over the front of the Benfica striker, with the ball winning there. But positioning alone was not enough. He literally missed the ball and instead rattled into the man and took Pavlidis off. If he had taken the ball when he was in a first -class position, it was a first -class goal and no red card.
Instead, a deserved discharge was instead.
From initially, the game dictates to deep sitting and hoping to counteract the attacks, the red card changed things massively. As soon as Cubarsi was off the square, Hansi Flick wanted a defensive reinforcement and decided
Obviously, it removed Olmo’s influence and threat from the game and prevented Barcelona from having an outlet with which they could play through the field. The effects of this was that Robert Lewandowski was too isolated to really present the competition.
It ensured a very un -card, based on defensive discipline and fed the scraps of attack for three quarters of the game.
Regardless of whether he was frustrated by his performance or at the thought of being withdrawn, Lamine Yamal was not particularly enthusiastic about getting off the field just 11 minutes after the second half.
Flick decided that instead he wanted Ferran Torres on the field, and Yamal, as often as Barcelona’s X factor in the past 18 months, the player was sacrificed.
It is rare that Yamal plays less than 90 minutes, let alone under 60 years of age. But his exit here fell together with the ex-champion United left-back Alvaro Carreras to make dangerous runs forward.
When Ferran went left, Raphinha went right instead of Yamal to consolidate things.
Remove back in the last August and Barcelona Nico Williams from the Athletic Club. If this approach had not been gripped by the club’s limited finances, Raphinha would have pushed himself very well towards the periphery and probably even the door.
But what a season was it for the Brazilian winger. He spent a large part of it as a captain and wore the bracelet, while Frenkie de Jong and Ronald Araujo scored the 25th goal for a wonderful campaign in order to put this draw in the favor of his team.
Nine of his goals this season are achieved in nine Champions League appearances, while it is an immense participation of 41 goals and in all competitions.
Sometimes what you need is not what you want, but what you already have.
Barcelona would not have won this game without Raphinha’s goal, but the reason why they had the foundation to win at all was the masterful performance of Wojciech Szczesny.
This is the guy who went away from football as a whole at the end of last season. He was retired when Barcelona picked him up as an emergency coverage after the injury to Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, and it took a while to suppress Inaki Pena from the starter position.
In the course of the game, Szczesny achieved eight parades, including three really big to deny Kerem Akturkogu (twice in the first half) and Renato Sanches during death.