Benfica – Barcelona: Hansi Leaves Lisbon Indebted To Defensive Dedication (0-1)

Few matchups in this season’s Champions League have delivered entertainment quite like Barcelona versus Benfica. The league phase clash between these two sides was a thrilling, end-to-end spectacle, and as they met again in the knockout rounds, expectations were high for another captivating contest. Benfica, a team that has embraced chaos in Europe this season, arrived in Barcelona with an attacking mindset, while the hosts have been relentless in front of goal, leading the competition in scoring. 

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

Benfica bottled their advantage at the death in January but bought into the chaos of the Catalonian game model to produce one of the best shows that a spectator could ask for. They then banked their spot in this stage of the tournament after a 3-3 draw with AS Monaco in their playoff return leg. The Eagles are good value for entertainment: their ten matches in Europe have yielded 35 goals. Being on the right side of a result here would mark a massive step to a third quarter-final in the last four years.

Barcelona have scored 28 goals this season in the league phase of the Champions League— six more than any other club. The thriller was the only time the hosts hit the net four times and lost a European match on their turf. However, the goals are also paving the way to serious bids for silverware. The Supercopa de España is already in the bag and a treble might be on the horizon. Sitting at the top of LaLiga and in the Copa del Rey semi-final, they are chasing their first continental crown in a decade.

Hansi Flick fielded three different players from the eleven he picked in the last meeting of the two teams. Gavi has been out of training with a fever, so Dani Olmo operated as the attacking midfielder. Marc Casadó came out for Frenkie de Jong as the partner to Pedri, the lynchpin in the middle of the park. Iñigo Martínez moved into the center of the defense with Pau Cubarsí instead of Ronald Araújo.

Bruno Lage left only one man out of the lineup in that outing. Florentino Luís is absent with a thigh injury, and as Manu Silva sits out with an ACL rupture, Leandro Barreiro stepped into the midfield. Alexander Bah bowed out for the campaign with an ACL injury, and Tomás Araújo has filled in for him as a right back. Ex-Real Madrid attacker Ángel Di María missed out thanks to a muscle problem.

Blow for blow

This tie took off from the point where the league phase fixture left off. Kerem Aktürkoğlu forced a save from Wojciech Szczęsny at the first attack and two more shots followed in the next two minutes.

But Barcelona built a little more control as the opening phase unfolded. Flick had been critical of the rest defense in the first contest as he is wary of the threat that the Eagles have in the transition. They looked to apply even more focus in their typical patterns. Pedri pushed play forwards in the middle of the park, Lewandowski and Raphinha rotated to release runs in tighter arrangements on the left side of the field, and the isolation was more suitable on the right flank with the ball to the feet of Yamal.

18^th minute: defensive transition from Barcelona. Pedri punched the ball towards Lewandowski while Raphinha rolled off the shoulder of Araújo to threaten with a deeper run. The red shirts swarm on the ball to trap the progression but Barcelona respond immediately. Pedri pushed forward and Olmo is close enough so that Barreiro could not turn on the inside. Aktürkoğlu attempted to release Andreas Schjelderup on the ‘free’ flank but Koundé closed him down and Olmo retreated intensely enough to provoke a backwards pass. Pedri and Olmo then advanced the pressure and enforced a long punt.

Phases of possession piled up and the extra element of their counterpressure to contain opponents continued to give a new edge to the offense. In the 12th minute, they ought to have taken the lead. Jules Koundé clattered into a duel to thrust forward a breakaway, Olmo peeled into space to reveal a wide lane from Pedri to Raphinha, and the captain cut the ball across the area. Anatoliy Trubin threw a boot at Olmo’s effort and then Lewandowski leaned ahead of Yamal to rob him of a rebound.

At the other end of the pitch, the Catalans keep living life on the edge with their infamous high line. Benfica broke through a few more times in this phase and one occasion turned out to be critical.

Barcelona blown back but not beaten

Vangelis Pavlidis plowed through the middle of the field, nudging de Jong in an aerial duel and then shrugging off Pedri to approach Szczęsny. Before he could test the goalkeeper, Cubarsí came into contact. The defender was adamant he swiped the ball, but the officials awarded him a red card.

Flick did not wish to stray too far from his principles. His men had already endured being a man down in Europe in their only loss of the tournament to date: a 2-1 defeat away at AS Monaco. He stuck with the same blueprint: without the same ferocity of pressure, the players pitched up in a 4-4-1 formation. A lowered line was wary of the danger of the opponent and Raphinha retreated more on the left wing.

Szczęsny smothered a header from close range near half time, but the strategy seemed to contain the hosts, who had more time with the ball but little impact in the final third. The Catalans could also carry a counterpunch with the wingers. Flick had pulled off Olmo but the solutions in small spaces from Yamal and Pedri as well as the relentless running of Raphinha relieved the defense many times.

49^th minute: offensive transition from Barcelona. Koundé clamped down on Schjelderup’s dribbling and Benfica were slow to respond to the ball loss. De Jong retrieves the possession and fed the ball to Yamal, who held up the pass with an additional touch before releasing Pedri. Lewandowski had leveraged the space on the wing to release his teammate and then accepts the ball as Aursnes attempts to secure the center. Raphinha has the time to fly forward but the switch did not arrive.

Raphinha rises again

At the start of the second half, Lage’s men mounted on the pressure. The formation fell even further and fresh legs were in order. Ferran Torres then took the place of Yamal, and Raphinha rotated to the right wing. It might have been a surprise to spectators to see him hook the 17-year-old off the field prematurely, but the captain continues to deliver decisive moments and did so on the hour mark.

António Silva swung the play to Álvaro Carreras, but the left back was not ready to receive, and the loose execution allowed Raphinha to strike. He gleefully drove at the defense, Otamendi pedaled back to his goal, and the captain carved out the opening with a firm effort along the floor that flew past Trubin. The ten men had taken the lead and had half an hour to hang onto their marginal advantage.

The rest of the rotation in the Catalonian lineup looked to lock up the lead. Casadó came on for de Jong, Gerard Martín moved to the left of the back four and Balde bulked up the defensive coverage on the wing while Torres acted as the central forward for the final ten minutes. After an offside call culled the hope of a penalty from a foul for Andrea Belotti, it was enough to thwart the damage.

Raphinha in ‘big’ games this season:

•Hat-trick vs Bayern
•G+A in the Clasico
•Goal vs Dortmund
•Brace + assist in the second Clasico
•Brace + winner vs Benfica
•Winner vs Benfica again
•2 assists vs Atalanta
•2 assists vs Atleti

Mind-bogglingly clutch. pic.twitter.com/ncqrIpwNCB

— Neal 🇦🇺 (@NealGardner_) March 6, 2025

Takeaways

Benfica earned the respect of their opponents to drop their last line and still showed that they could compete with one of the contenders. Indeed, this game had four more efforts than the last clash, and the score might have been much higher. However, they finished the fixture on the wrong end of the result once again and have it all to do at Montjuïc: a tough task but not entirely out of the question.

Barcelona are always toeing the line between risk and reward, and some will feel that this style shall be the fatal flaw of a camp that is teeming with young players in this campaign. But their fearlessness sets them apart from most of their rivals in Europe, and a time comes when a top team takes these qualities and turns them into high-stakes successes. Such trials may be the making of their talents for the future and in the present, the upper hand lies with their camp as they travel back to Catalonia.

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