Raphinha struck a second-half winner to give Barcelona a lion-hearted victory at Benfica on Wednesday as they overcame a red card for Pau Cubarsí early in the game to steal an advantage in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Barcelona’s teenage defender Cubarsí was given a straight red card for a last-man foul on Vangelis Pavlidis in the 22nd minute, but the visitors hung on with the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny putting in a brilliant performance.
The Polish veteran pulled off a string of brilliant saves to keep Barça in the game and his effort was rewarded in the 61st minute when Raphinha pounced on a poor defensive pass across the Benfica box, firing a low strike that deflected off a defender before going in just inside the left post.
The star of the show, however, was Szczesny, who came out of retirement to play for Barça after the Germany international Marc-André ter Stegen sustained a torn knee ligament in September.
“Szczesny saved us many times today, he is outstanding,” the Barcelona midfielder Pedri told the Spanish TV station Movistar Plus. “You have to give a lot of credit for the team’s effort after going a man down so early in the game. On other days it was harder for us but today we hung on and defended really well.”
Szczesny’s brilliant night started 30 seconds after kick-off, when Pavlidis recovered the ball and fed Kerem Akturkoglu inside the box. He fired a low strike that the 34-year-old kept out with a one-handed save.
The visiting keeper ended up making eight saves, five of those in the second half when Benfica piled on the pressure with over 60% of possession and 15 goal attempts. Barça had only a couple, with Raphinha netting with their only shot on target in the second half.
Szczesny’s magic included a stunning reflex save to deny Fredrik Aursnes from close range early on after the break and an excellent stop to palm away Renato Sanches’s bullet strike from the edge of the box four minutes into added time.
“It’s a bad result, we had good chances today, especially when they got the red card … It’s a very disappointing result,” Aursnes told Benfica TV. “We created a lot of chances, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to score and paid a heavy price for that.”
Source: theguardian.com
