Barça sealed their qualification for the Champions League quarterfinals with a win (2-6) against Benfica. He started the Barça team very well, but he continued to show some moments of doubts and inaccuracies that were about to complicate his life. He knew how to solve them and the Catalan team has already secured their place in the next round.
Giráldez's team came out for all, which seemed to have learned from the mistakes of recent games, those that made him give up the first three points of the season on his visit to the Allianz Arena. They will compete with Bayern for first place in the group on the last day after the Germans also did their homework, beating Rosengård (0-4). If Barça beat the Swedish team at the Camp Nou next Wednesday (9:00 p.m.), the lead will be theirs, since they have the goal average won with the Bavarian team.
The match started with a true Barca monologue from the initial whistle. A cross from Pina, which Crnogorcevic failed to connect well, reached Geyse's feet. The Brazilian tried it twice but all without success. It would only be a warning of what was to come until, eight minutes into the game, Irene Paredes opened the can. The Gipuzkoan central defender finished off a great rehearsed play by the Barça team with a powerful header. A short corner kick that Aitana ends up centering towards the penalty spot so that Paredes goes in with everything and shoots into the back of the net.
Under heavy rain and with the game on track, Barça continued collecting arrivals at the local goal in a siege only interrupted for a brief period in which Benfica tried to take advantage of some doubts in defense of the Catalans. Jéssica Silva scored the first shot for the Portuguese in minute 27, after a drive down the left flank by Chloe Lacasse, but Sandra Paños neutralized the danger without major problems. Shortly after, Mapi León had to head for a corner from a cross that was looking for a shooter in the Barça area. It was practically all the danger for Benfica, which in the last minutes before the break suffered another attack again. After two attempts by Aitana Bonmatí, and already in added time, Claudia Pina received a ball on the balcony of the area, looked up, searched for space and placed a shot with equal parts precision and power to make it 0-2 before of rest.
Giráldez's team jumped back onto the field of play with no intention of lowering their foot of the accelerator. Geyse was about to score the third with a cross shot that went wide just touching the post, but Aitana Bonmatí would not fail two minutes later, who made it 0-3, equaling Geyse as Barça's top scorers in Europe, with 5 goals each. . Crnogorcevic signed up for the win with an unstoppable shot, but from 0-4 the blaugranas were able to go from 0-4 to 2-4 in a second half in which life was unnecessarily complicated. Jéssica Silva closed the gap in minute 62, taking advantage of a blunder by the defense and a Paños who could have done more. And ten minutes later, Mariona Caldentey committed a penalty on Lacasse, although fortunately the goalkeeper from Alicante made up for it with a save that prevented the second goal from the Portuguese.
Misaligned and imprecise, the Catalan team did not know how to control the game and suffered a crazy ending. Seiça scored an own goal trying to parry a shot from Paralluelo and Lacasse made it 2-5 with a quick counterattack down the right flank. Already in added time Mariona Caldentey would seal the victory with the sixth goal, but there would still be time for Paños to save the second penalty of the night, this time due to some hands from Rolfö. A crazy finish, but one that ends with Barça in the quarterfinals.
