Barça wants to forget their setback on the last day against Bayern (3-1) sealing their qualification for the quarterfinals of the Champions League with a victory over Benfica. The azulgranas are still leaders of group D, tied on points with Bayern, but the victory (3-0) over the Germans at the Camp Nou means that Giráldez’s team has it in their hands to secure first place, thus avoiding the most dangerous rivals in the quarterfinals.
The precedents are more than favorable for this. Despite coming from a painful defeat at the Allianz Arena, Benfica should not be a problem for the Catalan team, who thrashed the Portuguese 9-0 in the first leg, certifying the biggest win in their history in Europe.
Although as the Barca team has already been shown, nothing can be taken for granted. In case of defeat, they would lose first place and there could be a three-way tie between the Catalans, Germans and Portuguese, with one day to conclude the group stage.
Giráldez’s team is worth a draw to ensure classification, and they would confirm first place if they win and Bayern lose their game against Rosengård, the bottom of the group and Barça’s last rival next week at the Camp Nou (Wednesday 21 , 9pm).
Benfica is the leader of the Portuguese league, in which it remains undefeated and has only conceded two goals all season. Special attention deserves the Canadian striker Chloe Lacasse, who has scored six goals in the European competition. The ‘eagles’ have gone from less to more in the Champions League. After the win against Barça in their European debut, they stood up against Bayern, losing only in added time and then they added the six points against Rosengård.
Barça faces Benfica this Thursday (9:00 p.m., Dazn) and will then have a week off, since their match against Valencia has been moved to February and they will not play again until Wednesday, when they will close the group stage at Camp Nou against the Swedish team in the last game of the year for the Catalans.
