Champions League Round of 16, second leg: Barcelona 3 [Raphinha 11, 42, Lamine Yamal 27] Benfica 1 [Otamendi 13] (Barcelona win 4-1 on agg)
Barcelona qualified for the quarter-final of the Champions League in the name of Carles Miñarro, a journey they began together continued in his absence.
On Tuesday morning a funeral was held for the 53-year-old club doctor who had suddenly passed away at the team hotel three days earlier; the same evening, the players he had cared for and who had spent the previous night at the chapel of rest paid homage the only way they really could.
“We tried to do everything for him,” Pedri said after they defeated Benfica 3-1 at Montjuïc, a hugely impressive display dedicated to him.
“He will be supporting us wherever he is; it is very important for us to win for him,” Hansi Flick had said, and so they did.
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A superb first half was enough, Raphinha scoring two and Lamine Yamal becoming the youngest player to score and assist in the Champions League, at 17 years and 241 days.
“What has happened gave us strength,” Raphinha insisted at the end, he also said that Barcelona are candidates to win this competition, and on the evidence here that does not feel like such a leap of faith.
Benfica were blown away, the half-time whistle coming as a relief, a chance at last to take a moment without red and blue shirts running at them from everywhere. It was 3-1 by then, 4-1 on aggregate, and Bruno Lage’s team were flattered by the one. And, in fact, by the three. The shot count read 12-1.
The hope now less that they could find a way back into it as that it might be over, and so it was. There was little need for more, Barcelona easing their way to the finish, managing the remaining 45 minutes.
From the first minute, when Frenkie de Jong had driven at them, there was a sense of mission about Barcelona, the game taking shape then one of speed, open spaces, and skill too. Especially when Yamal had the ball, which was often.
Not that it was just him. Pedri, once so physically vulnerable now seems invincible, a steel to go with the smoothness. Dani Olmo detected gaps no one else did, somehow always seeming to have room. From further back, Alex Balde repeatedly came bombing forward. Raphinha was, again, decisive.
How Benfica must be sick of the man who took his total against them to five in three games here. Only Robert Lewandowski was not at his best. Twice he received near the penalty spot, the first provided by Yamal, the second by Olmo; both times he would have expected to score, neither time did he.
The other two forwards did. Barcelona took the lead on 11 minutes and lost it again two minutes later but it didn’t matter. Yamal had made that first chance for Lewandowski, now he made the opener for Raphinha. Cutting one way then back again, twisting Florentino Luís’s hips, he seemed to be opening up his body to bend the ball towards the far corner but the shot, scuffed slightly, faded rightward, accidentally turning into the perfect cross for Raphinha instead. The Brazilian volleyed in.
They had barely finished celebrating when Nicolás Otamendi headed in from Andreas Schjelderup’s corner at the other end, the ball reaching him off Lewandowski. So Barcelona just did it all over again, the chances still coming. As for Yamal, he did that.
The 17-year-old was by the corner flag when he started to move. There was a shift of the hips and he escaped Tomás Araújo, entering the penalty area at the side and exiting it at the top, literally cutting off the corner, space now to shoot. Only “shot” is not really the word for what he did next, even “kick” is not. Instead, he nudged the ball, little more than the flip of an ankle, yet enough to somehow send it 20 yards into the far corner. It curled and floated and drifted, entirely deliberately, travelling almost teasingly, as if it was waving on its way past Anatoliy Trubin: you can look but you can’t touch.
Raphinha came over and polished Yamal’s boot, then added the third when Balde burst up the middle of the pitch and rolled the ball into his path. The finish was hard, low and unstoppable, even for the linesman whose flag was raised and then overruled by the VAR, allowing him to stand atop the advertising boards, arms wide, the moment shared with this stadium.
All that prevented Barcelona adding more was the fact that they did not need to, this was done. It was not that there were no chances in the second half – it began with Ronald Araújo heading into the side-netting and a flick from Yamal almost releasing Olmo – but the pace dropped, the urgency gone.
Benfica tried, of course, Vangelis Pavlidis striking straight at Wojciech Szczesny and Iñigo Martínez diving in to block Samuel Dahl’s shot, the ball coming back off his elbow. There was a brief VAR check but no real belief that it would lead to anything, those few seconds a portrait of the second period.
Other than Zeki Amdouni’s header being stopped on the line by Jules Koundé with five minutes left, mostly Benfica had played with little real faith of another goal. Not least because they were not truly allowed any. Barcelona’s control remained intact, this no longer feeling like a contest. Instead, it was a homage, just as they had hoped it would be, dedicated to the doctor. – Guardian
