The sport within the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night time couldn’t have been more unusual than it turned out.
9 targets have been scored on the night time, three of which have been penalties. Two targets have been created by obvious errors from the goalkeepers whereas one was an personal objective.
Barcelona by no means heading in the right direction to win the sport in opposition to the Portuguese giants and have been trailing for the higher a part of the sport.
Nonetheless, a late turnaround helped them seal a last-gasp win with Raphinha scoring the match-winning objective on a vicious counter-attack, giving Barcelona three factors in opposition to the run of play.
Barça Common brings you three speaking factors from Benfica 4-5 Barcelona.
Szczesny’s howler
Regardless of what the finals scoreboard reads, Barcelona have been largely terrible throughout the sphere final night time with only a few gamers placing in a optimistic show.
It’s protected to name final night time’s first half at Estadio da Luz Barcelona’s worst half of the season, and it’s ironic how the identical recreation will likely be remembered as one of the particular wins of the season.
Of all of the gamers representing the crest, nevertheless, Wojciech Szczesny had probably the most disappointing outing.
The Polish goalkeeper began forward of Inaki Pena on the night time however appeared shaky from the very begin. Finally, it was his sequence of errors that led Barcelona into the soup they ultimately landed in.
In simply the twenty second minute in opposition to Benfica, the goalkeeper unnecessarily charged out of his field to win a ball Alejandro Balde had coming proper in direction of him. Szczesny’s surprising run caught the defender off guard and each gamers fell to the bottom after colliding.
The ball, falling straight into the toes of Benfica’s striker, gifted the hosts an open objective and the lead simply minutes after Robert Lewandowski’s equaliser.
Eight minutes after committing the blunder, the goalkeeper as soon as once more took down Kerem Akturkoglu within the field and conceded a penalty, giving Benfica a 3-1 lead and throwing away the momentum his aspect constructed.
Whereas the Polish shot-stopper has certainly proven promise this season, his two errors final night time coupled together with his sending-off in opposition to Actual Madrid make it clear that he should enhance his decision-making.
Mentality of kings
Barcelona should not normally a crew related to grinding out wins from video games they haven’t dominated, however final night time’s efficiency added that feather to Hansi Flick’s cap.
The Catalans struggled in opposition to Benfica’s low block over the 90 minutes and even stared at a two-goal deficit for a larger a part of the sport. At no level, nevertheless, did they provide up and their dedication to maintain combating is heavy reward for Flick’s work.
Regardless of being behind on the scoreboard, beneath stress by the Benfica assault and having the group in opposition to them in Portugal, Barcelona saved pushing within the remaining third.
A penalty gained by Lamine Yamal introduced the crew to inside one objective of Benfica, and with simply 5 minutes remaining on the clock, Barcelona nonetheless pushed to seek out an equaliser that Pedri and Eric Garcia ultimately discovered.
As an alternative of settling for the draw after the hard-fought conflict, Barcelona discovered the vitality to push for a winner within the final assault of the sport as effectively and their psychological resilience paid off as Raphinha executed the counter-attack with a surgeon’s precision.
A particular point out goes out to Pedri who was sensationally good for the whole ninety minutes on an evening when all his teammates appeared to wrestle.
It was his management and imaginative and prescient that created quite a few possibilities for the membership and rightfully his help that gave Barcelona the equalising fourth objective.
Prime-8 locked in
Hansi Flick and Co. will take the three factors regardless of the efficiency dished out by the crew. It might not have been a gorgeous win, however the three factors it granted are price their weight in gold.
With 18 factors in seven video games up to now, Barcelona sit in second place on the desk and have secured their place within the prime 8.
The eighth-placed crew at it stands, Aston Villa, are on 13 factors and might solely hit a complete of 16 factors in the event that they win their remaining recreation of the league part.
Mathematically, Barcelona have thus assured themselves of a spot within the prime 8 and direct qualification to the knockout levels.
The largest aid for Flick’s males, evidently, is that they are going to now now not should take part within the knockout spherical and thus save themselves from two additional video games on the hectic calendar.
With development within the Champions League, Barcelona can flip their sources and a focus to La Liga the place they’re in dire want of factors a minimum of till their Spherical of 16 fixture kicks off.
