Champions League: Benfica-Barcelona X-ray

Having beating Monaco 4-3 on aggregate in the Champions League play-off, o Benfica will face Barcelona in the last 16 of the competition, which debuted a new format this season. The first leg will be played on Wednesday, March 5, at 8 pm, at the Estádio da Luz.

The teams meet again in the Cathedral after their recent clash on matchday 7 of the competition's league phase (4-5, on January 21, 2025).

In the 10 previous matches between two teams that have become European champions, the record is slightly in favor of the Spanish side. Benfica have won two and drawn four, scoring 11 goals and conceding 13.

In the 8 rounds of the league phase, the Eagles earned their points in away wins against Red Star (1-2), Monaco (2-3) and Juventus (0-2), and in home wins and draws against Atlético Madrid (4-0) and Bologna (0-0), respectively. The Reds scored 16 goals and conceded 12.

Barcelona, meanwhile, beat Young Boys (5-0), Bayern Munich (4-1), Red Star (2-5), Brest (3-0), Dortmund (2-3) and Benfica (4-5); drew with Atalanta (2-2) and suffered their only defeat (2-1) against Monaco, the team the Eagles beat in the play-off.

The 19 points scored enabled the Catalans to finish in 2nd place out of the 36 teams taking part and secure early access to the last 16, with 28 goals scored and 13 conceded. For this reason, Barcelona have played two fewer games than Benfica.

Pavlidis, who has won four consecutive matches in the competition and scored a hat-trick against Barcelona in the league phase, is the Eagles' most prolific scorer, with 7 goals. On the other side, Lewandowski is the Catalans' top scorer with 9 goals in 8 games. Pavlidis is also the Benfica player with the most shots (24 shots, 2.4 per game), while Blaugrana's Raphinha has 34 shots (an average of 4.25 per game).

In terms of assists, Pavlidis, Di María, Álvaro Carreras and Bah (as well as Beste, who has since left the club) have all recorded two, while Raphinha leads the rivals with five passes for goals.

Comparing the performances of the two teams in the Champions League in the light of UEFA statistics, we see that Benfica have a total of 138 shots (an average of 13.8 per game) compared to 126 (an average of 15.75) for Barcelona.

In terms of the total number of attacks, the Glorioso has 391 (48.9 per game on average), compared to 414 for Barça (51.75 on average per match).

After 10 matches, the Reds have 34.1% effectiveness in crosses (42 out of 123), and are the best team among all the participants. Barcelona are 22nd in this regard (21 out of 95 and a 22.1% success rate).

As La Liga's sole leaders, the team coached by Hansi Flick reaches this knockout stage with an 88.1% pass efficiency rate (4221 out of 4748 attempts), compared to 81% for Bruno Lage's side (3436 out of 4180).

Up until this stage of the competition, the Eagles had recovered 451 balls (an average of 45.1 per game) compared to Barcelona's 274 (34.35 per game).

Benfica also have a better total in tackles won (69 vs. 49), which equates to 6.9 per game compared to 6.1 for their next opponents.

With 71 actions (an average of 7.1 per match) against Casadó's 39 (an average of 4.8), Otamendi is the player in both teams with the most ball recoveries. As for tackles won, in the same number of games (8), Florentino is the eagle who stands out the most (17) compared to Casadó's 19.

Benfica's Aursnes (116.2) and Blaugrana's Pedri (88.6) are the athletes who have covered the most kilometers.