Barça started the road to Eindhoven with an exhibition against Benfica, a priori, the most accessible rival in the group. The blaugranes endorsed the Portuguese champion with the biggest win they have ever achieved in the Champions League, a 9-0 that served as a perfect tribute to Alexia Putellas, the brand new winner of the Ballon d'Or, who offered the Johan Cruyff fans the trophy that received on Monday in Paris, the second in a row for Mollet. The little more than five thousand fans who filled the stands were able to celebrate the successes of their captain in style.
Benfica was no match for a much superior Barça that showed in its debut in Europe that it wants to reconquer the lost throne in Turin. With Aitana's return to the starting lineup, the team recovered its best version and cornered the Portuguese champion in their area.
If until now Giráldez's team was having a hard time finding fluidity in the first parts, with Sant Pere de Ribes in the engine room, Barça was once again a steamroller. The team needed only 48 seconds to open the scoring. A throw-in served by Crnogorcevic from the right of the Barça attack that Oshoala sent into the small area for Patri Guijarro to push the ball into the back of the net and raise the score to 1-0.
Barça accumulated arrivals in the Rute Costa area, but forgave chances, until Aitana, in the 14th minute, widened the gap with the 2-0 lead after taking advantage of the rejection of an Oshoala who tried again and again without finding a goal. But the Nigerian shook off her frustration shortly before the break, after a monumental mistake by the defense, which gave her the ball in a frank position to shoot Costa and score the third to the delight of the Johan Cruyff Barça fans.
Barça came out of the locker room with the same hunger for goals and it would not take long to find the prize. Five minutes after the break, Mariona Caldentey signed an individual move that was a mark of the Balearic Islands, cutting through a defense and adjusting a precise shot to the short post. 4-0 and with no intention of taking his foot off the accelerator. Ten minutes later, the Majorcan soccer player would send a great cross into the area for Ana Maria Crnogorcevic to finish off at will with a header that would make it 5-0.
Benfica barely managed to shoot at Gemma Font's goal, solid under the sticks in the absence of the injured Paños. The Portuguese champion, the same one who had managed to eliminate in the previous rounds against Twente, among others, only two shots for 24 of the azulgranas, 17 of them between the three sticks.
With the match under control, Giráldez moved to the bench with a quadruple substitution, bringing on Codina, Rolfö, Pina and Geyse. The Brazilian striker wasted no time and as soon as she entered, she joined the party scoring the sixth goal for Barcelona. But it would not be all positive news for Giráldez's team, who saw how Laia Codina, who had just entered, had to be replaced after hurting her shoulder in a bad fall.
It was the only gray note of a brilliant team, especially in a second half of the exhibition. The young Claudia Pina, with a powerful shot from the center of the area, would join the scoring club of a historic night. The team was a true steamroller, that machine made to win that has shown that it knows how to be either in the League or in Europe.
Oshoala made up for the missed chances in the first half by scoring the eighth goal, the second in his private account, after pushing a good assist from Mariona Caldentey to the back of the net, who performed at the level of the best nights. The Barça party would end with a header from Geyse who in less than half an hour of play had enough to score a double. 9-0 and the biggest win for the Barça team in the Champions League, surpassing that 0-6 that endorsed Gintra in the round of 16 of the 2017-18 season.
The party will move to the Camp Nou on November 24, when the Barça temple will open its doors to receive Bayern. Before that, Barça will have to travel to Sweden, next Thursday (6:45 p.m.) to face Rosengard in their fiefdom.
