Barcelona managed to grind out a narrow but crucial first leg win in their Champions League last 16 tie against Benfica at a hostile Estadio da Luz on Wednesday night.
Hansi Flick's team will take a 1-0 aggregate lead back to Catalonia next week, earned through a solitary second half goal from Raphinha in the Portuguese capital.
It needed to be a disciplined defensive from Barcelona, who played three quarters of the game with ten players after Pau Cubarsi was shown a red card for a last-man challenge in the first half.
Benfica will see this as an opportunity missed to give themselves a lead to defend in the second leg.
Benfica player ratings vs Barcelona (4-3-3)
Player | Rating |
|---|---|
GK: Anatoliy Trubin | 7.4/10 |
RB: Tomas Araujo | 6.7/10 |
CB: Antonio Silva | 5.8/10 |
CB: Nicolas Otamendi (c) | 7.3/10 |
LB: Alvaro Carreras | 7.0/10 |
CM: Fredrik Aursnes | 7.0/10 |
CM: Leandro Barreiro | 6.4/10 |
CM: Orkun Kokcu | 6.7/10 |
RW: Kerem Akturkoglu | 7.5/10 |
ST: Vangelis Pavlidis | 6.1/10 |
LW: Andreas Schjelderup | 6.2/10 |
SUB: Samuel Dahl (57' for Araujo) | 6.9/10 |
SUB: Joao Rego (70' for Schjelderup) | 5.9/10 |
SUB: Andrea Belotti (70' for Barreiro) | 5.9/10 |
SUB: Arthur Cabral (84' for Pavlidis) | N/A |
SUB: Renato Sanches (84' for Kokcu) | N/A |
Subs not used: Samuel Soares (GK), Adrian Bajrami, Leandro Santos, Diogo Prioste, Gianluca Prestianni, Hugo Felix, Nuno Felix.
Barcelona player ratings vs Benfica (4-2-3-1)
Player | Rating |
|---|---|
GK: Wojciech Szczesny | 8.9/10 |
RB: Jules Kounde | 7.6/10 |
CB: Pau Cubarsi | 5.4/10 |
CB: Inigo Martinez | 7.4/10 |
LB: Alejandro Balde | 7.3/10 |
CM: Frenkie de Jong (c) | 7.2/10 |
CM: Pedri | 8.1/10 |
RM: Lamine Yamal | 6.9/10 |
AM: Dani Olmo | 6.7/10 |
LM: Raphinha | 8.0/10 |
ST: Robert Lewandowski | 6.4/10 |
SUB: Ronald Araujo (28' for Olmo) | 7.0/10 |
SUB: Ferran Torres (56' for Yamal) | 6.4/10 |
SUB: Gerard Martin (78' for Lewandowski) | 6.0/10 |
SUB: Marc Casado (79' for De Jong) | 6.7/10 |
Subs not used: Inaki Pena (GK), Diego Kochen (GK), Eric Garcia, Hector Fort, Fermin Lopez, Pablo Torre, Ansu Fati, Pau Victor.
Player of the match - Wojciech Szczesny (Barcelona)
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