Barcelona faced off against Benfica at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica earlier tonight as they hoped to grind out a positive result on the road. Ronald Koeman’s men made a nightmare start to the game as they conceded the opening goal in the third minute when Darwin Nunez found the back of the net with a great strike. The Catalans tried to control possession but struggled to come up with anything productive in the final third. The visitors went into the half-time break one goal down on the scoreline.
Barca were lackluster in the second half as they failed to be clinical in front of the Benfica goal. Rafa Silva put daylight between the two sides when he scored in the 69th minute. Just ten minutes later, Nunez scored again from the penalty spot to put the icing on the cake for his team as the Catalan giants ended up losing the contest by a 3-0 scoreline.
Let’s take a look at how each Barcelona player performed during the clash against Benfica.
GK: Marc-André ter Stegen – 5/10
The German keeper looked shaky at the back and ended up conceding three goals during the game.
CB: Ronald Araujo – 6.5/10
Araujo made some important defensive contributions on the field but still didn’t manage to keep the Benfica attackers at bay.
CB: Gerard Pique – 6/10
The Spaniard lasted only 32 minutes before he had to be substituted.
CB: Eric Garcia – 4/10
Garcia had a nightmare game at the back as he couldn’t cope with the guile of the home team’s attacks. He picked up two poor yellow cards and got sent off in the 87th minute.
RM: Sergi Roberto – 6/10
The Spaniard tried his best to keep things solid inside his half and made two good runs going forward.
CM: Frenkie de Jong – 7/10
De Jong anchored the midfield to the best of his ability and created a few decent chances for his teammates to score.
CM: Sergio Busquets – 6.5/10
He got stuck in with some crunching tackles during his time on the pitch. He was substituted in the 67th minute.
LM: Sergiño Dest – 6/10
He was always willing to make a tackle but looked far from convincing down the left flank.
CAM: Pedri – 6/10
The talented youngster struggled to get into the flow of the game and got replaced after the hour mark.
ST: Memphis Depay – 6.5/10
The Dutch striker made some promising runs with the ball but never looked like he had a goal in him.
ST: Luuk de Jong – 6/10
He had a couple of shot attempts but didn’t do much else in the game.
Substitutes:
CM: Gavi – 6/10
The youngster got some valuable minutes under his belt after he replaced Pique in the first half. It was a learning experience for him in the second half.
CM: Nicolás González Iglesias – 6/10
He retained the ball quite effectively but didn’t do enough with it.
ST: Ansu Fati – 5/10
Fati never got a sniff at goal.
LW: Philippe Coutinho – 6/10
He struggled to influence the game.
CB: Oscar Mingueza – N/A
Mingueza hardly played enough minutes to warrant a rating.
