Key events
52 min: Barcelona have enjoyed 63 percent of possession tonight, and taken 13 attempts on goal to Benfica’s one. “Lamal appears to have gone the full Phil Foden with the bespoke wrist wrapping,” observes Tim Smith. “Is this a new injury or am I just not able to comprehend the youth of today. For what it’s worth, Phil appears to have worn his for at least a year. Cheaper than a tat I suppose?”
51 min: Yamal nearly releases Olmo into yards of space down the middle with a tricksy back-flick. Nearly, not quite. The crowd appreciated the skill anyway.
49 min: Raphinha sends an outswinger of a free kick to the far stick. Araújo tries to steer a header home from a tight angle, but can only flap the side netting. So nearly 4-1 on the evening. And then so nearly 3-2 as Pavlidis springs clear down the Benfica left and rolls across for Aursnes, who slides in and roofs. But Pavlidis was clearly offside.
48 min: Silva is booked for clipping Raphinha mid-glide. A free kick out on the left flank.
47 min: So here’s a stat. At 17 years and 241 days, Lamine Yamal has become the youngest player to provide both a goal and an assist in a Champions League game. He’s beaten a record set by Breel Embolo (17 years 263 days). Next up: Ansu Fati (17 years 355 days) and Jude Bellingham (18 years 78 days). That’s not bad company to be keeping.
Benfica get the second half started. No changes. “It used to feel like a privilege watching Messi – but with Lamal it’s more like pure pleasure,” writes Charles Antaki. Where Messi scurried, Lamal lopes; Messi was a closed book of genius, Lamal has talent on public view. Also he clearly enjoys playing, which Messi didn’t always seem to. But Messi lasted a good ten years, maybe more, at the summit. Let’s see about Lamal, but it looks good already.”
Half-time postbag. Another email! How about that. “I never know what to make of Hansi Flick,” begins Kári Tulinius. “On the one hand, he wants his teams to attack relentlessly and rely on high-wire defending when things, inevitably, go pear shaped. On the other hand, he has the demeanour and affect of a slightly intense middle manager at a life insurance firm on dress down Friday. I guess I like my hell-for-leather attack-minded managers to look like they’ve suffered for their wild ideas. Zdenek Zeman, where are you now?”
Any old excuse to relive Hans-Dieter’s finest moment.
Half-time postbag. It’s teeming over with an email. “I hope Wojciech Szczęsny took the time to light up a crafty fag in appreciation after that frankly outrageous Yamal goal,” writes Justin Kavanagh.
Half-time advertisement. Time to contemplate tonight’s big showdown at Anfield. Yara El-Shaboury has the details. And yes, this tie is over, but you’ll still come back for the second half, yes? Please!
HALF TIME: Barcelona 3-1 Benfica (agg 4-1)
Barcelona have been simply sensational. They could easily have had six or seven. This is over, now just a damage-limitation exercise for Benfica. Unless something very strange happens: Barca scored four second-half goals in Lisbon in January after all. But let’s be realistic, Barca are as good as in the quarter-finals.
45 min: Otamendi doesn’t know whether to argue the toss over the goal, or accept he’s no longer in the book. What a merry puddle.
44 min: … and Otamendi has his yellow card rescinded. What a fiasco.
43 min: Some very strange stuff in the immediate aftermath of the goal. It looks as though the referee’s ruled out the goal, having blown for a foul on Balde, who was clattered by Otamendi while making the assist. Too whistle happy? It looks like it. Otamendi is booked. But then, perhaps thanks to the intervention of VAR, the referee awards the goal after all! How odd. But the goal stands, as it should.
GOAL! Barcelona 3-1 Benfica (Raphinha 42); agg 4-1
… but it doesn’t matter, because Balde bombs down the centre of the pitch before slipping a pass to Raphinha on his left. Raphinha whistles a shot across Trubin and into the bottom right. It’s all over!
41 min: Olmo finds Raphinha on the edge of the Benfica D. Raphinha curls powerfully towards the top left … but it’s always heading over. Then moments later, Lewandowski saunters into the box and prepares to shoot from 12 yards. Too much preparation. He hesitates, is nearly closed down, and then, suddenly rushed, slaps an uncharacteristically witless effort straight at Trubin. Another huge chance spurned.
39 min: Olmo slips a pass down the right for Yamal, who is this close to scuttling clear. Schjelderup saves the day with a fine last-ditch tackle. Then a counter, with Pavlidis sprung free down the Benfica left. He opens his body and pings a fine curling shot across Szczęsny and off the junction of crossbar and right-hand post. Then the flag pops up for offside, correctly so. It wouldn’t have counted, but perhaps that’ll give Benfica a little succour.
37 min: That second Barca goal has taken a little bit of wind out of the Benfica sail. They had gone toe to toe with their hosts for the first quarter of an hour, but now, not so much.
35 min: Replays of that Yamal goal … my oh my. He just pinball-flippered that shot with his boot. A gentle golf wedge. A crisp flick of a table-tennis bat. Comparisons to other leisure pursuits are available. Such elegance. Raphinha mimed shoe-shining Yamal’s boot during the celebration, and as Glenn Hoddle observes on TNT Sports, Yamal certainly deserved the buff.
33 min: Pedri is clipped from behind by Kökçü. It’s a foul, nothing more. Pedri flashes an imaginary card while rubbing his ankle, which is a bit unnecessary, especially after a garden-variety challenge.
31 min: Benfica are all over the shop at the back. Yamal tries to tee up Lewandowski, 12 yards out. A poor pass. He’s only human, after all. Barcelona could, and probably should, be out of sight.
29 min: Just as they did upon conceding the first goal, Benfica win a corner pretty much immediately from the restart. Schjelderup down the right this time. Pavlidis swings it in but it’s an easy claim for Szczęsny. No instant on-the-night equaliser this time.
GOAL! Barcelona 2-1 Benfica (Yamal 27); agg 3-1
This is gorgeous. Yamal jinks in from the right, facing down Araújo then waltzing past the defender as though he wasn’t there. He curls gracefully across Trubin and into the top left. That was steered in, no need for any whip. The keeper had no chance. Glorious. Special. Sublime.
26 min: Pedri rolls a pass in from the left with a view to releasing Lewandowski. Otamandi does well to stick on his shoulder and guide the ball away. “The Catalan hosts should be wary of the Benfica left back. If he makes a game-changing impact, the Dahl-i performance could cause Barcelona’s clocks to melt.” Catalonia art fan Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the Chupa Chups.
24 min: The astonishing Yamal makes himself a little space down the inside-right channel before lashing a low drive inches wide of the bottom-right corner. Trubin had it covered, to be fair.
22 min: Lewandowski has the opportunity to release Raphinha down the middle of the park. He overhits the pass, allowing Trubin to come off his line and smother, just in time, though the keeper takes a whack from Raphinha for his trouble. Raphinha was entitled to go for it, and there are no hard feelings. The keeper’s back up on his feet in short order. Barca have carved out three good chances in as many minutes.
21 min: Balde busts a gut to reach the byline down the left. He cuts back for Olmo, who opens his body and slices a dismal effort out for a throw. Had that been Lewandowski there instead, it’d have been 2-1. Fair to say there are more goals in this game.
20 min: Olmo barrels down the middle. He slips a pass wide right to Yamal, who definitely means to cross this time. Lewandowski can’t quite reach it in the middle. Another half yard and he’d have been slotting from close range. Yamal – and this is not exclusive breaking news – is some player.
18 min: Barca stroke it around patiently, the game slowing down for the first time.
16 min: A brief break in play as the sun goes down, allowing Ramadan-observing players to break their fast. Energy gels all round.
15 min: Dahl nearly dances his way past Kounde on the left touchline. Kounde does just enough to usher the ball out for a goal kick. Dahl looks in the mood to cause Barcelona a bit of bother tonight.
14 min: Another nine-goal thriller, please!
GOAL! Barcelona 1-1 Benfica (Otamendi 13); agg 2-1
13 min: Benfica immediately win a corner from the restart. It’s swung in from the left and flicked on by Silva. Otamendi can’t miss with a close-range header at the far stick. The tie’s back on, exactly two minutes after it started to look all over!
12 min: Was that a cross by Yamal, or a shanked attempt to curl towards the top-left corner? Let’s give the young man the benefit of the doubt. And then, up the other end …
GOAL! Barcelona 1-0 Benfica (Raphinha 11); agg 2-0
This was so easy. Yamal again makes good from the right flank, sitting down Florentino with an exquisite dummy and entering the box. He crosses to Raphinha, coming in from the left. A first-time shot flies into the net. Benfica in bother now.
10 min: Barca should be ahead. Yamal drives in from the right and feeds Lewandowski on the penalty spot. He’s under pressure from two defenders, but you’d still back the big Pole to score. He scuffs his shot straight at Trubin.
9 min: Balde exchanges passes with Raphinha down the inside-left channel, then creams a rising drive towards the top left. Trubin tips over, and up pops yet another offside flag.
8 min: Dahl is seeing quite a bit of the ball on the left touchline. He chests down and passes to Schjelderup, racing down the channel. Schjelderup’s low cross is turned out by Martínez, though Benfica don’t get the corner, Schjelderup apparently offside. Not sure about that. Barca get away with one.
6 min: Pedri romps into acres of space down the middle, before stroking a pass towards Yamal to his right. Yamal meets it first time on the edge of the Benfica box but scuffs the shot straight to Trubin.
4 min: Dahl strokes a pass down the left touchline to release Schjelderup into the box. Schjelderup’s low cross is blocked, then the flag pops up correctly for offside. A nice open feel to this already. Pretty much as everyone told us to expect, in fact.
3 min: Lewandowski scraps to win the ball before feeding Yamal down the right. A low cross is no good, but otherwise this is a decent start by the hosts.
2 min: De Jong embarks on an uncontested drive down the inside-left channel. His attempt to find Yamal to his right is deflected back upfield. Pedri has a whack from distance. It dribbles through to Trubin in the Benfica goal.
Barcelona get the ball rolling. The city so beautiful in the background. Ah, memories of the diving at the 1992 Olympics.
The teams are out. Barcelona are in their famous blaugrana, Benfica in third-choice white/silver/grey with neon yellow trim. A crackling atmosphere at the Olímpic Lluís Companys despite the place not yet totally full, as per Steve McManaman. We’ll be off once a poignant moment is taken to remember Carles Minarro Garcia.
Speaking on TNT Sports, Steve McManaman suggests Benfica have good reason to be hopeful. “They will get a lot of the ball they way Barcelona play … they’re expansive … there’s always lots of space … [Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys] is not a hostile ground by far … it’s an early game in Spain … the fans will be trickling in 25 minutes after the game has started, the way they operate there … they’ve got a really good opportunity to do something, Benfica … this is not the normal 9pm kick-off in the Camp Nou … this is completely different.”
Benfica coach Bruno Lage talks to TNT Sports. “The big task for today is to try to repeat what we did in the last games against them … create chances … score goals … we have big confidence to be here and play our game … we try to forget the environment and focus on the things we can control … we have watched good things we did in both games … we know we will have opportunities to score … so will Barcelona … we know what needs to be done.”
Benfica have lost the first leg at home in official Uefa competition on seven previous occasions. They’ve only managed to turn things around once, against Dinamo Bucureşti in the first round of the 1999-2000 Uefa Cup, winning 2-0 in Romania after a 1-0 defeat in Portugal.
Barcelona have won the first leg away on 40 occasions in Uefa competition, going on to lose just three ties. A very healthy conversion rate, though one of those turnaround defeats came only last year, when Paris Saint-Germain recovered from a 3-2 home defeat in last season’s quarter-finals to win the second leg at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys 4-1. What a game that was.
So there’s hope for Benfica certainly. Especially as Barca are past masters in shipping first-leg advantages in this competition of late: a 2-0 defeat at Atlético Madrid in 2016 after a 2-1 home win; a 3-0 capitulation at Roma in 2018 after a 4-1 home win, and that four-goal mauling by Liverpool in 2019 after a 3-0 victory at Camp Nou.
Barca didn’t play last weekend, with their Saturday match against Osasuna postponed shortly before kick-off following the death of the club’s first-team doctor Carles Minarro Garcia. Benfica meanwhile chalked up a 3-0 home win against Nacional on Saturday, Zeki Amdouni scoring early, Orkun Kökçü and Vangelis Pavlidis following up with a penalty apiece.
The winner of this tie will meet Borussia Dortmund or Lille in the quarter-finals next month. Iñigo Martínez would miss the first leg should he pick up a booking tonight and Barca make it through; Fredrik Aursnes, Orkun Kökçü, Zeki Amdouni and Leandro Barreiro are tottering along a similar administrative tightrope for Benfica.
Barcelona make one change to the team that started the 1-0 win in Lisbon. Captain Ronald Araújo takes the place of the suspended Pau Cubarsí in defence.
Benfica also have a man suspended after that match: Álvaro Carreras is out so Samuel Dahl replaces him at left-back. Florentino meanwhile takes Leandro Barreiro’s spot in midfield.
The teams
Barcelona: Szczesny, Kounde, Araujo, Martinez, Balde, de Jong, Pedri, Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha, Lewandowski.
Subs: Pena, Kochen, Gavi, Torres, Torre, Fati, Casado, Lopez, Victor, Garcia, Fort, Gerard.
Benfica: Trubin, Araujo, Silva, Otamendi, Dahl, Aursnes, Florentino, Kokcu, Akturkoglu, Pavlidis, Schjelderup.
Subs: Amdouni, Soares, Arthur Cabral, Barreiro, Belotti, Prestianni, Nuno Felix, Santos, Bajrami, Rego, Sanches, Oliveira.
Referee: Francois Letexier (France).
Preamble
If recent history is any sort of guide, this already looks to be a done deal. Barcelona won the first leg of this last-16 tie in Lisbon last week, their 1-0 victory with ten men following up a smash-and-grab 5-4 win at Estádio da Luz in January during the group. So Hansi Flick’s men appear to have the Eagles’ number. There’s also the small matter of never having lost at home to Benfica ever, a four-match sample that stretches back to 1991.
But there’s always hope. Benfica have drawn 0-0 on their last two visits to Barcelona, and while that wouldn’t be enough to save themselves this evening, it demonstrates their ability to remain within striking distance of a shock. They’ve also beaten Barca 3-0 as recently as 2021, Darwin Nunez scoring twice en route to their first victory over the Catalans since the 1961 European Cup final. And they’ve only lost six matches in their last 29 away games in Europe, which suggests a resilience that’ll be required if they’re to pull this off tonight.
Having said all that, the curse Béla Guttmann placed on the club appears to be very effective, so even if Benfica make it through, we could merely be witnessing one of humankind’s great exercises in futility. Anyway, good luck Benfica! Here’s to you, Barca! May the best team win. Kick-off at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys is at 5.45pm GMT, 6.45pm local. It’s on.
