Barcelona have been a team in form under Hansi Flick lately, but they’ll have to be careful Wednesday while taking that on the road in the Champions League last 16 facing Benfica. After a big victory over Real Sociedad, Barcelona are now unbeaten in 15 consecutive matches in all competitions including a wild 5-4 victory over Benfica when these two met in the league phase of this competition. Benfica are unbeaten in eight straight matches of their own and know that they can score against Barcelona.
Here are our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Wednesday, March 5 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica — Lisbon, Portugal
- Live stream: Paramount+
- Odds: Benfica +270; Draw +320; Barcelona -125
Storylines
Benfica: Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis scored a hat trick in the last meeting between these teams and he will be leaned on yet again. He has been involved in nine goals in 10 Champions League appearances so far this campaign, but he’ll need even more goal involvement if his team is to advance further in the competition. This is a team in good form but defensively there is a lot of work to do.
Benfica predicted XI: Anatoliy Trubin, Alvaro Carreras, Nicolas Otamendi, Antonio Silva, Tomas Araujo, Orkun Kokcu, Leandro Barreiro, Fredrik Aursnes, Bruma, Vangelis Pavlidis, Kerem Akturkoglu
Barcelona: Winning their last six La Liga matches, Barcelona will enter with confidence to accomplish their goals, especially since they’re comfortable winning if the match turns into a shootout. Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski will be looked at to pace the attack but there are so many ways that Barcelona can carve a team apart if they sit back or come at them in attack, which makes it tough to gameplan against.
Barcelona predicted XI: Wojciech Szczesny, Alex Balde, Inigo Martinez, Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, Pedri, Frenkie De Jong, Raphinha, Dani Olmo, Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski
Prediction
Barcelona will get out to a lead early in this one and ride it to a comprehensive victory with one eye on rotating in the second leg at home. Pick: Benfica 1, Barcelona 3
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