Raphinha Seals 10-Man Barcelona’s 1-0 Win at Benfica

After overcoming a red card for Pau Cubarsi early in the game to grab a lead in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 encounter, Raphinha struck a second-half winner to provide Barcelona a lion-hearted 1-0 triumph against Benfica on Wednesday.

For a last-man foul on Vangelis Pavlidis in the 22nd minute, Barcelona’s teenage defender Cubarsi received a straight red card; nevertheless, the visitors hung on with goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny delivering an outstanding performance.

The Polish veteran’s work paid off in the 61st minute when Raphinha pounced on a weak defensive pass across the Benfica box, saving Barca in the game. Then he used the error to his advantage, shooting a low strike that bounced off a defender before approaching just inside the left post.

The star of the show, however, was Szczesny, who came out of retirement to play for Barca after Germany international Marc-Andre ter Stegen sustained a ruptured knee ligament in September.

“Szczesny saved us many times today, he is outstanding,” Barcelona player Pedri told Spanish TV station Movistar Plus.

“You have to give a lot of respect for the team’s effort after going a man down so early in the game. On past days it was harder for us but today we hung on and defended pretty effectively.”

Szczesny’s spectacular night started 30 seconds after kickoff, when Pavlidis recovered the ball and supplied Kerem Akturkoglu inside the box and he hit a low strike that the 34-year-old keeper kept out with a one-handed save.

With nearly 60% of possession and 15 goal attempts, Benfica heaped the pressure and the Polish keeper ended up making eight saves, five of which in the second half. With Raphinha netting their only effort on target in the second half, Barca had just a couple.

Szczesny’s magic consisted in a great reaction save to deny Fredrik Aursnes from close range early on after the interval and a superb stop to palm away Renato Sanches’s rocket shot from the edge of the box four minutes into added time.

“This is a poor outcome; we had strong possibilities today, particularly with regard to the red card. Aursnes said Benfica TV that the outcome is really disappointing.

“We generated a lot of opportunities, but sadly we didn’t score and paid a great cost for that…”