Raphinha scored a second-half winner to give Barcelona a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Benfica on Wednesday, despite playing most of the match with 10 men. The win gave Barcelona a crucial advantage in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Barcelona’s young defender Pau Cubarsi was shown a straight red card in the 22nd minute for a last-man foul on Vangelis Pavlidis, leaving the visitors a man down. However, Barcelona’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny put in a stellar performance, making a series of incredible saves to keep his team in the game.
In the 61st minute, Raphinha capitalized on a poor defensive pass across the Benfica box, firing a low strike that deflected off a defender and went just inside the left post. Despite the red card and a constant barrage of pressure from Benfica, Szczesny was the standout player, and his efforts were key to securing the victory.
“Szczesny saved us many times today, he was outstanding,” said Barcelona midfielder Pedri on Spanish TV station Movistar Plus. “You have to give a lot of credit to the team for their effort after going a man down so early. On other days it was harder for us, but today we hung on and defended really well.”
Szczesny’s heroics started just 30 seconds into the match, when he saved a low strike from Kerem Akturkoglu inside the box with a one-handed save. The Polish goalkeeper ended the match with eight saves, five of which came in the second half as Benfica dominated possession with over 60% and launched 15 attempts on goal.
Barcelona had only a few chances, with Raphinha’s strike being their only shot on target in the second half.
Szczesny’s brilliance included a stunning reflex save to deny Fredrik Aursnes from close range early in the second half and a crucial stop to palm away Renato Sanches’s powerful shot from outside the box in added time.
“It’s a bad result, we had good chances, especially after they got the red card… It’s very disappointing,” Aursnes told Benfica TV. “We created a lot of chances, but unfortunately, we couldn’t score and paid a heavy price for that…”
