Barcelona cruised through to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, putting three goals past Benfica in a dominant performance at the Estadi Olimpic Lluís Companys.
Raphinha’s opener was quickly followed by an equaliser from Nicolás Otamendi, but Barça soon restored their three-goal aggregate advantage through a Lamine Yamal strike and another goal from Raphinha.
Hansi Flick’s side will face either LOSC Lille or Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-final. The first leg of the round-of-16 tie between the two sides ended in a 1-1 stalemate, leaving everything to play for on Wednesday.
With Hansi Flick suggesting in his pre-match press conference that Barcelona would look to dedicate a win on Tuesday to the late Dr Carles Miñarro, players from both teams came together for a moment of silence ahead of kick-off – and the _Blaugrana_ wasted no time in getting the goals flowing.
Raphinha’s goal in Lisbon last week had given Barça a one-goal lead ahead of this second leg, and a blistering start from Tuesday’s hosts saw them quickly double their aggregate advantage as the Brazilian netted yet another goal – his 26th in all competitions so far this season. Lamine Yamal had created the chance, breaking free on the right and progressing with purpose towards goal before jinking through the visiting defence to tee up Raphinha at the far post.
But the celebrations had barely died down before Benfica equalised in emphatic fashion at the other end; a corner swung in was nodded past Wojciech Szczęsny by Nicolás Otamendi to restore parity on the night.
On their day, Barcelona are simply unstoppable though – and that was the case on Tuesday. With less than 30 minutes played at Montjuïc, Yamal carved out another golden opportunity and this time, he took it on himself. Dancing past a defender and drifting away from goal, the 17-year-old caressed the ball into the far corner, past a hapless Anatoliy Trubin.
Hansi Flick’s side should have added their third goal through Robert Lewandowski, but while the Polish forward missed an excellent one-on-one opportunity, Raphinha was once again on hand to ensure it wouldn’t come back to bite the Catalan side. A tremendous run down the left flank by Alejandro Baldé ended with the left-back picking out the Brazilian, who smashed home into the bottom corner with 42 minutes on the clock.
(Photo by Florencia Tan Jun – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
The second half, by comparison, was a duller affair as Barça fought valiantly to ensure their lead wasn’t compromised by a Benfica outfit fighting tooth and nail to keep their European dream alive.
The Portuguese side switched to an aggressive 4-2-4 formation in the dying moments of the match, but even that proved to be no match for an organised Barcelona defence that ultimately cruised through to the quarter-finals on an emotional night.
**BAR:** Szczęsny; Baldé, Iñigo, Araújo, Koundé; Pedri, de Jong; Raphinha, Olmo, Yamal; Lewandowski
**BEN:** Trubin; Dahl, Otamendi, Silva, Araújo; Kökçü, Florentino, Aursnes; Schjelderup, Pavlidis, Aktürkoglu