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.
