What a match. Barça played with ten from the 21st minute. With ten, they scored their goal and emerged victorious from the Estádio da Luz.
Barça won the first leg against Benfica 0-1, goal by Raphinha. A great goal. In the 61st minute, when their footballers had already been playing with a disadvantage for 40 minutes.
Now Barça has to confirm in Montjuïc what was hinted at in Lisbon. It was a necessary match for this team. They needed to pass a test of this nature, and in Europe.
Commitment and Hunger for Glory
The team of Flick has passed the test with flying colors. They have known how to roll up their sleeves and show commitment, attitude, intensity, solidarity, hunger for glory...
This Barça is indeed reliable, capable of overcoming adversities and never backing down at any moment. Lowering their arms is not for this Barça that once again commands respect in Europe.
Today's match at the Estádio da Luz was hardly similar to the crazy 4-5 encounter played at the same venue a month and a half ago. That was an offensive festival. Today, a demonstration of a team that wants and can, because they have quality to spare.
The expulsion of Cubarsí in the 21st minute, with a score of zero, left the match in the balance. It was about resisting. And there appeared Pedri, omnipresent, as throughout the season, asking for the ball, keeping it, and distributing it to his teammates.
Pedri, Raphinha, Lamine and... Szczęsny!
In Lisbon, there was another great match by Pedri. And by Lamine. And by Raphinha.
The stars have to appear when they are most needed. With one man down, Barça created the clearest chances and outplayed Benfica, who couldn't take advantage of their numerical superiority. It was the triumph of a team concept in which everyone excelled.
Especially the Polish goalkeeper Szczęsny. Flick can be happy. He took a gamble by betting on him, and it paid off.
Today he stopped everything, absolutely everything. The stoppable and the unstoppable. And many of these came his way, up to eight challenging shots.
Szczęsny proved his coach right and turned the locker room into a celebration. At the end of the match, Pedri went to him and said, "God bless you." God bless Szczęsny and all those who defended Barça's badge today.