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Sid Lowe’s report is in. Here it is. Thanks for reading this MBM.
This tie was over the minute the outrageous teenage talent Lamine Yamal sashayed in from the right and effortlessly flicked a curler into the top-left corner. Yamal, who at 17 years and 241 days has become the youngest player to provide both a goal and an assist in the same Champions League game, was borderline unplayable at times. Two-goal Raphinha was on song too, during a scintillating first-half performance which could easily have seen Barcelona score double the three goals they actually managed. Benfica didn’t even play particularly badly, they were just no match for their star-studded hosts. The Catalan giants will play Borussia Dortmund or Lille in the quarters; they’ll fancy their chances of going all the way, and on tonight’s form, why not?
Barcelona advance elegantly, serenely into the quarter finals!
90 min +1: This entire half has been a masterclass in clock management by Barcelona. Not a joule of energy needlessly expended. The reward for wrapping things up so efficiently in the first half.
90 min: There will be two additional minutes.
89 min: A free kick for Barca out on the left. Raphinha caresses it into the mixer. Araújo can’t get any purchase on his header at the far post.
88 min: Raphinha hits the corner long. Garcia heads down at the far stick but can’t find a team-mate in the middle. Benfica clear their lines.
87 min: Gavi’s snap-shot from the right-hand corner of the six-yard box is blocked out by Otamendi. Before the resulting corner can be taken, Eric García comes on for Iñigo Martínez.
85 min: Amdouni twists his way down the left to win another Benfica corner. Barca make a meal of clearing it, and the ball finds Otamandi out on the right. He dinks a cross across the face of goal for Amdouni, whose downward header nearly pinballs off Kounde and into the bottom left … but shaves the base of the post, Szczęsny finally put to work. The keeper smothers.
84 min: João Rego comes on for Tomás Araújo.
83 min: Aursnes sends a Benfica corner in from the right. It’s no good. But the ball’s recycled back to Aursnes, leading to an outbreak of head tennis in the Barca box. But again there’s no real danger to the home side. Szczęsny able to smoke his tab all the way down to the butt.
82 min: It’s now 2-2 in double changes. Marc Casadó and Pau Victor come on for Frenkie de Jong and the record-breaking Lamine Yamal. To repeat: at 17 years and 241 days, Yamal has become the youngest player to provide both a goal and an assist in the same Champions League game.
80 min: Sanchez bursts down the middle of the park. He’s got options either side, but turns them both down, dropping a shoulder a couple of times before hoicking a poor effort high over the bar from the edge of the box. On the touchline, an unhappy Bruno Lage tells it as he sees it.
78 min: Nope, it’s never a penalty. The corner from the left leads to another on the right, and that one leads to nothing. Szczęsny still swanning around with a fag on.
77 min: Better from Benfica, as Amdouni dribbles across the face of the Barca box, right to left, and tees up Dahl, who opens his body and steers a shot towards the right-hand side of goal. Martinez slides in to block. It’s just a corner, but before it can be taken, there’s a quick check by VAR for a potential penalty.
76 min: See 55 min.
74 min: Torres clears the bar in the style of Jonny Wilkinson.
73 min: Torres’s first act is to get skittled by Otamendi, 30 yards out in a central position. Free kick. Quite a few Barca players fancy taking this one.
71 min: Benfica are at least leading 2-1 in double changes. Now they replace Orkun Kökçü and Florentino with Leandro Barreiro and Andrea Belotti.
70 min: It’s Barcelona’s turn to make a double change. Gavi and Ferran Torres come on for Robert Lewandowski and Dani Olmo.
69 min: Barcelona stroke it around, and the home fans soundtrack the scene with a few olés. Any old excuse …
67 min: Pavlidis jigs his way down the inside-left channel before taking a whack straight at Szczęsny, who has had precious little to do, other than dream of tasty fags.
65 min: Araújo tries to release Aursnes down the right. Goal kick. Absolutely nothing happening for Benfica up front. The same can’t be said for Barcelona, with Raphinha starting an attack with a delightful backflick down the left touchline. The ball’s shuttled across the face of the Benfica box to Yamal, who executes another backflick, releasing Kounde into the box on the right. A low cross fizzed in. De Jong, sliding in, manages to shank wide of an open goal from six yards.
Frenkie De Jong misses a huge chance for Barcelona! Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters
63 min: Olmo tries to buy a free kick by hanging out a leg to make contact with Silva, before falling over in the brazen style. The free kick goes Benfica’s way, and Olmo’s lucky not to go into the book.
61 min: … so having said that, the hosts immediately slow things down again. Pulitzer, please!
59 min: Balde’s turn to eat up ground down the middle. He slips a pass to Olmo, who one-twos with Yamal along the inside-right channel. But the return pass is too strong, allowing Trubin to smother at Olmo’s feet. Barcelona beginning to go through the gears again, in pursuit of that fourth goal.
57 min: De Jong romps up the middle of the park before feeding Raphinha out on the left. Raphinha looks for Olmo with a low cross, but Olmo can’t reach the diagonal ball before it runs out of play to the right of goal. Just for a second, number four looked on the cards for Barcelona.
56 min: Benfica make a double swap. Renato Sanches and Zeki Amdouni come on for Kerem Aktürkoğlu and Andreas Schjelderup.
55 min: It’s all a bit scrappy and low energy. If both teams could declare, one suspects they would right here and now.
Robert Lewandowski battles for the ball with Benfica defender Antonio Silva. Photograph: Alejandro García/EPA
53 min: Yamal drifts in from the right and goes for another of those flip-curls towards the top left. This one way off target. It’s not as easy as he made the first one look. Another one to file under: Not Super-Human All The Time.
52 min: Barcelona have enjoyed 63 percent of possession tonight, and taken 13 attempts on goal to Benfica’s one. “Lamal appears to have gone the full Phil Foden with the bespoke wrist wrapping,” observes Tim Smith. “Is this a new injury or am I just not able to comprehend the youth of today. For what it’s worth, Phil appears to have worn his for at least a year. Cheaper than a tat I suppose?”
51 min: Yamal nearly releases Olmo into yards of space down the middle with a tricksy back-flick. Nearly, not quite. The crowd appreciated the skill anyway.
49 min: Raphinha sends an outswinger of a free kick to the far stick. Araújo tries to steer a header home from a tight angle, but can only flap the side netting. So nearly 4-1 on the evening. And then so nearly 3-2 as Pavlidis springs clear down the Benfica left and rolls across for Aursnes, who slides in and roofs. But Pavlidis was clearly offside.
48 min: Silva is booked for clipping Raphinha mid-glide. A free kick out on the left flank.
47 min: So here’s a stat. At 17 years and 241 days, Lamine Yamal has become the youngest player to provide both a goal and an assist in a Champions League game. He’s beaten a record set by Breel Embolo (17 years 263 days). Next up: Ansu Fati (17 years 355 days) and Jude Bellingham (18 years 78 days). That’s not bad company to be keeping.
Benfica get the second half started. No changes. “It used to feel like a privilege watching Messi – but with Lamal it’s more like pure pleasure,” writes Charles Antaki. Where Messi scurried, Lamal lopes; Messi was a closed book of genius, Lamal has talent on public view. Also he clearly enjoys playing, which Messi didn’t always seem to. But Messi lasted a good ten years, maybe more, at the summit. Let’s see about Lamal, but it looks good already.”
Half-time postbag. Another email! How about that. “I never know what to make of Hansi Flick,” begins Kári Tulinius. “On the one hand, he wants his teams to attack relentlessly and rely on high-wire defending when things, inevitably, go pear shaped. On the other hand, he has the demeanour and affect of a slightly intense middle manager at a life insurance firm on dress down Friday. I guess I like my hell-for-leather attack-minded managers to look like they’ve suffered for their wild ideas. Zdenek Zeman, where are you now?”
Any old excuse to relive Hans-Dieter’s finest moment.
Half-time postbag. It’s teeming over with an email. “I hope Wojciech Szczęsny took the time to light up a crafty fag in appreciation after that frankly outrageous Yamal goal,” writes Justin Kavanagh.
Half-time advertisement. Time to contemplate tonight’s big showdown at Anfield. Yara El-Shaboury has the details. And yes, this tie is over, but you’ll still come back for the second half, yes? Please!
Barcelona have been simply sensational. They could easily have had six or seven. This is over, now just a damage-limitation exercise for Benfica. Unless something very strange happens: Barca scored four second-half goals in Lisbon in January after all. But let’s be realistic, Barca are as good as in the quarter-finals.
45 min: Otamendi doesn’t know whether to argue the toss over the goal, or accept he’s no longer in the book. What a merry puddle.
44 min: … and Otamendi has his yellow card rescinded. What a fiasco.
43 min: Some very strange stuff in the immediate aftermath of the goal. It looks as though the referee’s ruled out the goal, having blown for a foul on Balde, who was clattered by Otamendi while making the assist. Too whistle happy? It looks like it. Otamendi is booked. But then, perhaps thanks to the intervention of VAR, the referee awards the goal after all! How odd. But the goal stands, as it should.
… but it doesn’t matter, because Balde bombs down the centre of the pitch before slipping a pass to Raphinha on his left. Raphinha whistles a shot across Trubin and into the bottom right. It’s all over!
Raphinha has surely put Barcelona through with his second of the night. Photograph: Florencia Tan Jun/UEFA/Getty Images
41 min: Olmo finds Raphinha on the edge of the Benfica D. Raphinha curls powerfully towards the top left … but it’s always heading over. Then moments later, Lewandowski saunters into the box and prepares to shoot from 12 yards. Too much preparation. He hesitates, is nearly closed down, and then, suddenly rushed, slaps an uncharacteristically witless effort straight at Trubin. Another huge chance spurned.
39 min: Olmo slips a pass down the right for Yamal, who is this close to scuttling clear. Schjelderup saves the day with a fine last-ditch tackle. Then a counter, with Pavlidis sprung free down the Benfica left. He opens his body and pings a fine curling shot across Szczęsny and off the junction of crossbar and right-hand post. Then the flag pops up for offside, correctly so. It wouldn’t have counted, but perhaps that’ll give Benfica a little succour.
37 min: That second Barca goal has taken a little bit of wind out of the Benfica sail. They had gone toe to toe with their hosts for the first quarter of an hour, but now, not so much.
35 min: Replays of that Yamal goal … my oh my. He just pinball-flippered that shot with his boot. A gentle golf wedge. A crisp flick of a table-tennis bat. Comparisons to other leisure pursuits are available. Such elegance. Raphinha mimed shoe-shining Yamal’s boot during the celebration, and as Glenn Hoddle observes on TNT Sports, Yamal certainly deserved the buff.
33 min: Pedri is clipped from behind by Kökçü. It’s a foul, nothing more. Pedri flashes an imaginary card while rubbing his ankle, which is a bit unnecessary, especially after a garden-variety challenge.
31 min: Benfica are all over the shop at the back. Yamal tries to tee up Lewandowski, 12 yards out. A poor pass. He’s only human, after all. Barcelona could, and probably should, be out of sight.
29 min: Just as they did upon conceding the first goal, Benfica win a corner pretty much immediately from the restart. Schjelderup down the right this time. Pavlidis swings it in but it’s an easy claim for Szczęsny. No instant on-the-night equaliser this time.
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