After a few months away from the competition, its finally time to turn our attention back to the UEFA Champions League. And its a familiar face and venue that we will be having to deal with. Live from the Estadio De Luz in Lisbon. At 9pm local time, its Benfica up against Barça in the first leg of the round of 16 phase.
Funnily enough, we of course have already faced this side, only a few games back, in that utterly ridiculous game. For the neutrals it was probably one of the best champions league games that there has been for a while. But for either fans of Barca or Benfica it was a crazy game. An utterly crazy game. We already know that this isn’t going to be an easy game especially away at such a hostile stadium. So lets jump straight into the match preview!
A Quick Look at our opponents:
Differently with this preview, we aren’t going to be focusing on how Benfica are as a team. As of course, we have already faced them once before this season at the exact same venue. The main thing we’ll be looking at is what sort of lessons can we take from our last meet up and how can we apply that in the game later tonight. For me, the major thing, is Benfica’s ability on the counter attack. We saw when we met before how good they re at soaking up pressure and hitting on the counter with speed.
Their fullbacks, especially their left back is a key part of this. Alvaro is young talent on the left side who is not only brilliant on the ball, but is very good defensively too. But of course, he can also break on the counter very well too. He is someone to look out for, but their team as a whole showed last time out that they can compete, score goals and defend well against us.
We just need to make sure that individual mistakes are kept to a minimum. That is how they well get against us on the counter, especially with our high line. It makes this yet another tricky and difficult to predict game.
Predicted lineup:
When it comes to the possible lineup for the game, i think there will be a few changes from our last game on the weekend. But not a lot of rotations. The obvious one will be Balde coming in for Gerard Martin after a full games rest on the weekend.
There are a few questions for Flick to answer though. Gavi for me would be in the starting eleven, alongside Pedri. But he’s a doubt for this one due to a fever. Which is a real shame, because in a game like this, he would be an asset. So this means we will either see Frenkie or Casado next to Pedri.
With Olmo in that number 10 position once more. And lastly, will Araujo start alongside Cubarsi or will it be Iñigo Martinez. For me, i believe it will be Iñigo, but Araujo had a fantastic game on the weekend and is slowly acclimatising himself to the high line. His recovery pace would be useful too in this one, but after being rested on Sunday, i think it will be Iñigo Martinez who gains his space back in the starting eleven.
My starting lineup:
Szcezney
Kounde- Cubarsi- Iñigo- Balde
Pedri- Frenkie
Yamal- Olmo- Raphinha
Lewandowski
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