Barcelona – Benfica: Barcelona Breeze Onwards Into The Quarter-Finals (3-1)

Barcelona briefly pressed pause on their season to pay respects to a well-respected member of their backroom staff. But the action at the front and center of people’s attention is still as lively as ever. With more grace and decorum than in the last two clashes of the teams, the Catalans dispatched their Iberian neighbors and moved onto the next stage of the Champions League.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

Barcelona are not strangers to shockwaves. However, the club is in a state of mourning as some matters mean more than the action on the field. The side has not played since the first leg at Lisbon, delaying their La Liga clash with Osasuna in honor of the death of first team doctor Carles Minarro Garcia. A professional performance is the target for the Catalonian camp. They are now closing in on consecutive appearances in the quarter-final of the Champions League for the first time in five years.

Benfica have been one of the biggest stressors of the Blaugrana this season. On the wrong side of a nine-goal thriller in the league phase, the Eagles ended up second-best again at their ground in the first leg of this tie despite spending most of the match with an extra man on the field. This is a team willing to go blow for blow with one of Europe’s most explosive outfits with an approach that reaped rewards for the neutral. Could they channel the excitement of spectators into personal jubilation?

Bruno Lage leaned on nine players that he picked from the first leg. Álvaro Carreras came out of the selection due to an accumulation of yellow cards, so Samuel Dahl stepped in as the left back. Tomás Araújo had been a doubt before kickoff but was fit to feature on the other flank. A thigh injury forced Florentino Luís to miss the first meeting of the teams, and the midfielder had returned in time for this critical clash. Ángel Di María missed out with a muscle injury, so all eyes were on Vangelis Pavlidis.

For Flick, there was only one altered member of the lineup from last week. Ronald Araújo acted as the captain and joined Iñigo Martínez in the middle of the back four, coming in for the suspended Pau Cubarsí. Wojciech Szczęsny sought to replicate his heroics between the posts. Marc Casadó continued to sit on the bench in place of Frenkie de Jong and Pedri. The front four stayed the same: Dani Olmo operated as the attacking midfielder behind Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Robert Lewandowski.

Benfica begin positively

Flick foresaw a fast start from the visitors, who command his respect as a threat on the transition. Benfica blew out of the blocks again and did not wait to settle into the contest, choosing to throw the ball down the wings before their opponents could click into rhythm with their high-risk approach.

4th minute: buildup sequence from Benfica. Aursnes found space on the outside of the Barcelona block. Balde pushed out to the midfielder, who split the difference between the fullback and Pedri. Kerem Aktürkoğlu attracted Martínez out of the chain, immediately forwarding the ball onto Vangelis Pavlidis. The passing pulls Ronald Araújo to the left side of the field and Dahl darts forward on the other side of the pitch: Pavlidis picks him out with a switch and Schjelderup supports on the outside.

The Catalans climbed up the field in an asymmetric 4-2-3-1 structure without the ball. Raphinha rotated higher on the left side of the shape, and Balde jumped out of the defensive chain to create a pressing trap. Their potent yet patient phases of possession and poisonous pressing would soon have their time to shine but for the moment, Fredrik Aursnes allowed the Eagles to fight on an even keel.

It would be the star of the show who set off the scoring with his wand of a left foot in the 11th minute.

Jules Koundé climbed to win an aerial duel over Dahl, and the second ball fell for Yamal with a free route to pull up the rear. He shifted inside onto his left boot and faked a strike, selling a dummy to Florentino and Nicolás Otamendi before going down the line. António Silva shifted laterally to track the winger, and as Araújo was attentive to the late run of Olmo off the shoulder, no one was watching Raphinha at the far post. Yamal’s strike swerved towards the Brazilian, who hit the back of the net.

The Catalans could rest a little easier with the advantage doubled on the aggregate. But they have a habit of complicating matters for themselves. Straight from kickoff, Álex Balde battled with Araújo for a long ball, and Raphinha contacted at the second phase, but the play ran loose, and Andreas Schjelderup mopped up for good. He drove forward and fired a through ball off de Jong and behind for a corner. The winger whipped a delivery, and at the far post, Otamendi replied to level the game.

Catalans click into midfield management mode

The stalemate did not last long. Slowly but surely, the favorites would strangle any life out of this clash. Their plan in possession looked familiar. Pedri partook as a progressive machine that connects the team from back to front, leaning to the left with de Jong. Balde brings an additional dynamic with his sharp ball carrying skills and diagonal dribbling that broke through pressure again and again.

20th minute: offensive sequence from Barcelona. Aursnes attacks Martínez gingerly, with de Jong on his shoulder, and as Aktürkoğlu attempted to push onto the central defender, Balde becomes freer on the flank. Olmo popped onto the inside shoulder of Florentino, who pushes double coverage out to the wing. Balde blows past him and Araújo while Olmo, Lewandowski and Raphinha all flooded the box.

It was down this side of the field that the hosts would engineer a second strike before the half hour.

Raphinha and Pedri probed Araújo with pressure, and the fullback buckled, giving away a free kick. The left winger whipped the ball into the danger zone, and though it flew over the heads of red and blue shirts, Yamal was free to take the ball on the right flank: it was a temporary respite for the visitors, but the 17-year-old wonderkid can carve out magic from anywhere. He skipped around Araújo on his inside and under no pressure at the top of the box, he picked out the corner of the net.

Overloads continued on the left to leave Yamal to answer problems in isolation. Olmo operated even more often on the left of this arrangement. Here, he could use his skill at drifting into and attacking gaping holes between the second and third lines of a block. Raphinha rolled over to the right, where he slipped onto the last line and brought the breakthrough power that has been pivotal this season.

40th minute: offensive sequence from Barcelona. Aursnes attacks Martínez much more aggressively and Florentino followed Pedri. The central defender can fire a diagonal ball at Olmo, who juggles the ball between the dropping defensive midfielder and Araújo. At the same time, Raphinha advanced to the last line, opening even more space between the lines. Pedri is free underneath, Lewandowski leans to the left and could have accessed Yamal on the right, but Raphinha went for an ambitious strike.

Continental catalyst calls time on the contest

After the second goal, the Eagles were guilty of giving away more fouls. Pedri, Balde, and de Jong pulled apart the three midfielders and the devastation would be complete before the end of the half.

Pavlidis pivoted to hold off de Jong and approached the edge of the penalty area, flicking the ball onto Aktürkoğlu. The winger would then try to release Aursnes with a backheel to go around the left edge of Barcelona’s back four, but Balde popped out of the line to claim control of the possession. The left back blew forward and Raphinha was on his left shoulder. The wide forward was not about to pass up the opportunity, arrowing a shot low and hard past Anatoliy Trubin. Counterattacking par excellence.

Only 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗡 has scored more than Raphinha in a single UCL season for Barcelona... 😱 pic.twitter.com/covbmFEwMN

— 433 (@433) March 12, 2025

Now, the tie was truly dead and buried. In the second half, the hosts could turn down the tempo, toy around with and tease their opponents, and de Jong charged forward from back to front, coming inches away from adding a fourth goal. Flick gave playing time to Gavi, Ferran Torres, Casadó, and Fermín López in the final twenty minutes as Barcelona booked their spot in the next round at a canter.

Takeaways

The emotional rollercoaster of the last few days did not stop Barcelona from finishing the job at hand. Pedri and Yamal stay strong as the two centerpieces of their creative direction while Raphinha rattled home two more goals in a campaign that continues to hush the haters. Flick has handed his players a blueprint that is bringing the best out of the talent in the squad, and their sights are set on a treble. Be it Lille or Borussia Dortmund, the Catalans will continue to strike fear among the European elite.

The two clubs have felt out each other’s strategies, and Benfica knew that they were not likely to take the possession battle even in the best of circumstances. But the loss leaves some regret for Lage. Flick forges his success in getting the most out of the individuals at his disposal in a dynamic manner, and his counterpart conceded that the Eagles ought to have tackled their talent better in 1 v 1 situations. But there is still a domestic treble on the line and plenty of joy to gain from the rest of the campaign.

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