Barcelona paid tribute to former first -team doctor Carles Minarro Garcia, mitigating Benfica on the emotional night in Catalonia.
Minarro Garcia, 40, passed away shortly before the game on Saturday against Osasuna, which encouraged the delay of the matchAnd the Barca players visibly moved during the memorial period before the beginning.
Coach Hans Flick said yesterday that players would perform for Minarro Garcia and that they must have done so with a stylish screen that denotes them as a serious candidate for this year’s Champions League.
The front and center, as was often the case this season, were Lamine Yamal and Raphinha.
The couple, in combination with the hand of Barca, is a 3-1 command lead at halftime that Benfica never looked like a rollover, since they entered the other leg last week but 1-0 down from firming in Lisbon.
The next one for Barca is a quarterfinals against Lille or Borussia Dortmund.
Yamal creates an opener – but did he mean that?
Yamal has already tested the Benfica goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin before the 17-year-old created an opener with a beautiful little game.
He broke through the defense of Benfica on the right edge of the area before his sliced goal – or was it a cross? – He was perfect for Raphinh to venture in the back post.
The lead lasted only two minutes, while Benfica struck from his first serious attack.
Andreas Schjelderup’s leftist corner was inadvertently intended Robert Lewandowski, and Nicolas Otamendi responded well to the heading of the header next to Wojciech Szczesny.
The goal meant that former Manchester City defender Otamendi became the third oldest player to score in the knockout of the Champions League match behind Edin Dzek and Ryan Giggs.
He quickly returned to his daily work trying to keep Barca in the bay, even though it was becoming a harder task as the home side moved forward.
Dani Olmo broke wide before Yamal’s long -term effort trumpet crossed his line.
Step the teenager
Yamal’s next intervention was stunning.
The Spanish internationally cut on the right, skipping past Florentina and Samuel Dahl, and although the ball seemed gently behind him, somehow wrapped his left leg around him to draw a shot in the upper left corner.
“Prince is not far to become the king around this place” 👑
Lamine Yamal produces a beautiful curler to make it 3-1 on an aggregate in Barcelona 🤩
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With 3-1 down to the aggregate, he looked far back to the Portuguese side and they were temporarily delivered.
Trubin saved well from Lewandowski four minutes before halftime, but the Ukrainian goalkeeper was powerless to prevent Barca from increasing his advantage another 60 seconds later.
Alejandro Balde played in Raphinhi and the Brazil striker was not wrong with a fresh end for his 11th Champions League goal in another extremely impressive season.
Barca Lightness Through the Second Half of March
Fredrik Aursnes had a goal forbidden for offsets at the beginning of the second half with that Benfica’s chances to return.
Because visitors accept their destiny and Barca without a mood to twist the knife, the second half was much calmer than the first.
There was still an unusual climax, one great move by Barca involving Frenkie de Jong, Raphinha, Jules Kound and Yamal, almost resulting in the Tapkom for Dutch midfielder de Jong.
Beautiful football from Barcelona ends with Frenkie de Jong who failed to turn from close proximity 😯
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The late replacement pop, including the departure of Yamal to standing ovation, disturbed the flow of the game, but Barca’s superiority was never endangered.
