Raphinha snatches 10-man Barcelona victory at Benfica

Raphinha’s second-half goal earned 10-man Barcelona a narrow 1-0 victory over Benfica in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League clash.

Both sides had chances in the early stages, but the visitors were handed an early blow when Pau Cubarsi was shown a red card for a last-man challenge on Vangelis Pavlidis.

Despite a number of good chances for the hosts, Barca edged ahead in the 61st minute when Raphinha’s low strike found the bottom corner and they managed to see the game out to take a slender advantage into next week’s second-leg meeting.

Dani Olmo had an early chance for the visitors when his shot whistled past the upright and the Spaniard was involved again when his shot was saved by Anatoliy Trubin, who then reacted quickly to keep out follow-up efforts from Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal.

The hosts had a great chance when Pavlidis broke forward and blasted the ball over the crossbar, but the game took a twist in the 22nd minute as Barcelona were reduced to 10 men.

Pavlidis burst through the visiting defence but was hauled down just outside the box by Cubarsi, who was subsequently sent off, and the resulting free-kick from Orkun Kokcu was pushed away by Wojciech Szczesny.

Raphinha had a shot blocked as Barca looked to snatch a goal and the forward had a teasing cross cleared before Szczesny was called into action to block Kerem Akturkoglu’s effort.

A late surge before the break saw Raphinha sprint down the left flank and launch another dangerous cross into the box which was hacked away by Alvaro Carreras just in front of the goal-line.

Pavlidis had a great opportunity minutes into the second half after firing a shot well over from the centre of the area and Benfica nearly found the breakthrough moments later when Szczesny made a good save to deny Fredrik Aursnes.

They had another promising opportunity when Andreas Schjelderup sliced an effort wide and despite a series of chances throughout the game for the hosts, it was Barcelona who edged ahead.

A misplaced pass at the back allowed Raphinha to pounce on the loose ball and he broke forward before smashing a low effort into the bottom corner.

Benfica came close to an equaliser through Kokcu and Aursnes and they had another brilliant chance when Akturkoglu had a low strike saved by Szczesny.

Another promising spell saw a low cross played into the six-yard area but Joao Rego was unable to stab home and some last-ditch defending saw Arthur Cabral’s effort cleared in the final stages.