• Barcelona managed to grind out Champions League over Benfica
  • Catalans dug deep after early red card shown to Pau Cubarsi
  • Raphinha & Wojciech Szczesny stood out for their performance

Barcelona are within 90 minutes of reaching the Champions League quarter-finals following Wednesday night’s hard-fought 1-0 victory over Benfica in Lisbon.

Hansi Flick’s Barcelona played three quarters of the game with a player less after Pau Cubarsi was sent off midway through the first half, but Raphinha was able to win it of the Catalans visitors.

Wojciech Szczesny also put up a huge performance in goal to underpin the win.

How the game unfolded

Things got started at 100mph as Szczesny pulled out a brilliant save from Kerem Akturkoglu in the opening minute, reacting to a shot from the Benfica winger to tip it away. Both sides had more half chances in the early exchanges, before Barcelona settled into the dominant role.

Benfica had goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin for keeping things level as a goalmouth scramble the Ukrainian somehow deny Dani Olmo, Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal.

But midway through the first half, Barca found themselves reduced to ten players. Pau Cubarsi was deemed guilty of denying Vangelis Pavlidis a goalscoring opportunity after the Benfica striker had burst through the middle. The on-field decision was red card and VAR agreed.

Szczesny kept out the resultant free-kick from Orkun Kokcu with a strong save, with the momentum clearly shifting in Benfica’s favour thanks to their man-advantage. The veteran Barcelona goalkeeper had to be alert to prevent Andreas Schjelderup form latching onto a dangerous ball, before another great stop in the closing stages of the first half, parrying Akturkoglu’s header.

Into the second half and Pavlidis skied a good chance from Alvaro Carreras’ cutback on the left, perhaps deserving the benefit of the doubt due to a slight deflection on the cross into the box.

Even with mitigation, Benfica were made to regret that miss almost instantly. Just a few minutes later, Raphinha put Barcelona ahead against the run of play. Antonio Silva was guilty of a sloppy pass in Benfica’s half that was picked off by Raphinha, who knocked the ball forward and drilled a low shot into the bottom corner of Trubin’s goal from 25 yards.

Benfica knew that, having been presented with a golden opportunity at home against a depleted Barcelona, their opportunity was slipping away. Bruno Lage put on veteran Italian striker Andrea Belotti and issued clear instructions to get numbers forward. Flick went the opposite way, seeking to preserve the slender lead, and put defender Gerard Martin on for Robert Lewandowski.

Belotti appealed desperately for a penalty in the closing stages as he attempted to round Szczesny, only for an offside flag to render whether it was or wasn’t irrelevant. Barca then survived a worrying flurry of Benfica corners as stoppage time approached, while Szczesny’s 94th minute save from substitute Renato Sanches ultimately saw his team through to victory.