Carrying a 1-0 first leg advantage, Barcelona look to book their place in the quarterfinal with a third straight win against Benfica in a single season in the Champions League.
BAR vs BEN Match Details
Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2025 / Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Time: 18:45 (CET), 11:15 (IST)
Venue: Estadi olímpic lluís companys, Barcelona
BAR vs BEN Match Preview
Barcelona had an unexpected rest time since their first leg win over Benfica last week, with their Saturday night league match against Osasuna getting postponed just 20 minutes from kick-off following the shocking death of their first-team doctor. So, the returning leg against the Eagles at home will matter much more for Blaugrana than just booking a ticket to the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League. A fantastic evening from Wojciech Szczesny with eight saves and another deciding goal from Raphinha in another thrilling game in Lisbon gave a slight 1-0 advantage on aggregate in this last-16 tie, which they would like to add to this midweek. Hansi Flick’s side are looking to extend their unbeaten run to 17 games in all competitions to keep their hopes of winning this competition for the first time since 2015 alive. Simply by avoiding defeat, the current La Liga leaders will make it to the next round with a record to back that up, having not lost this fixture at home in all four meetings.
So close yet so far for Benfica as they lost to Barcelona in front of their home support for the second time this season, with this defeat potentially eliminating them from the competition. Visitors for the second leg, Bruno Lage’s side will now have to do the valiant job of overturning their deficit and also not concede at the same time against the best-scoring side in the Champions League this season to have any hopes of staying in the competition. The odds are against the Eagles who have been knocked out on five out of six occasions when they lost the first leg. Benfica have no other options but to win by at least two goals, if they want to win in normal time, to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2015-16. The team carries a decent away record in Europe after beating Juventus and Monaco twice. However, no success against La Liga teams in any away match in nine years remains a major concern for the side.
BAR vs BEN Recent Form (all competitions)
BAR: WWDWW
BEN: DWWLW
BAR vs BEN Recent Form (Champions League)
BAR: WWWDW
BEN: LWWDL
BAR vs BEN Predicted Lineups
Barcelona
Szczesny; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Pedri, De Jong; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski
Benfica
Trubin; Santos, Silva, Otamendi, Dahl; Aursnes, Barreiro, Kokcu; Akturkoglu, Schjelderup, Pavlidis
BAR vs BEN Dream11 Match Prediction
Barcelona should find this challenge easy and muster a confident boosting victory ahead of a challenging week. We predict a 3-0 win for the Catalan giants.
BAR vs BEN Dream11 Top picks
Captain Pick: Raphinha
Vice-captain Picks: Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Vangelis Pavlidis
BAR vs BEN Dream11 Team Suggestion
GK: Szczesny (Cr - 7.5)
DEF: Kounde (Cr - 8), Martinez (Cr - 8.5), Otamendi (Cr - 7.5)
MID: Yamal (Cr - 8.5), Kokcu (Cr - 8.5), Pedri (Cr - 8), Aursnes (Cr - 7.5)
FW: Pavildis (Cr - 9), Lewandowski (Cr - 9), Raphinha (Cr - 9)
Vice-captain: Robert Lewandowski
Captain: Raphinha
