Barcelona are going into the second leg with a home advantage after defeating Benfica 1-0 at their stadium, the Estadio da Luz (Stadium of Light).
The Spanish side managed to cope against Benfica with ten men after Pau Cubarasi was sent off, the earliest a side has had someone been sent off in a knockout game and still win the game.
Raphinha scored his 9th goal in Europe, making him the 2nd top highest goal scorer in the Champions league this season; one goal behind Dortmund striker Serhou Guirassay.
Wojciech Szczesny set a new record by becoming the first Barcelona goalkeeper to make eight saves and obtain a clean sheet in a champions league game.
Despite being the only player who scored, the Brazilian winger did not win the Player of the Match award, instead it went to Szczesny who had an exceptional performance. Alisson Becker stole all the headlines after his incredible performance against Paris Saint Germain; however, the Polish goalkeeper had just as good of a game with 9.1 match rating, the 2nd highest this season.
Hansi flick has really turned around this Barcelona side, they have been exceptional this season.
Currently they are the only team undefeated in the Champions league, will Benfica be the first to defeat them?
Barcelona will be playing the Portuguese side for the second time in a row as their match against Osasuna was postponed due to the unfortunate passing of their doctor Carles Minarro Garcia who suffered a heart attack in a hotel.
Everyone at Barcelona is deeply saddened by the sudden passing of the 53- year-old doctor who has been at the club since the 2016/17 season.
Benfica on the other hand are coming off a 3-0 victory against Nacional meaning that they are just three points behind league leaders Sporting with a game in hand.
Out of the eight times that the two teams have played each other, Benfica have only won once.
Benfica have never won against Barcelona away from home but this year they have Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis who has scored 7 goals in the competition.
The last time a Benfica player scored this many goals in a tournament was in the 1964-65 season, 'the Black Panther' Eusebio ended up with 9 goals.
Team News
Robert Lewandoski is confirmed to start in tonight's fixture after there were doubts that the striker was going to be rested.
Hansi Flick stated "Lewandoski is available to play tomorrow. On Saturday, he felt something during the activasion session but now he si fine."
Pau Cubarasi will be missing this game as a result of his red card against Pavlidis, Ronald Araujo is likely to start instead of him.
Starting lineup: Szczesny, Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Martinez, Balde, De Jong, Pedri, Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha, Lewandoski
Benfica's left back Alvaro Carreras is set to miss today's fixture against his former rivals.
The Spaniard is set to serve a suspension because of the 5 yellow cards that he has accumulated in the competition.
Alongside Carreras, is Angel Di Maria, Tiago Gouveia and Alexander Bah who will also be missing today's game due to injury.
Luckily for Benfica, Benfica's manager Bruno Lage has announced that midfielder Florentino Luis will be back in the starting 11.
Starting lineup: Trubin, Dahl, Antonio Silva, Otamendi, Tomas Araujo, Aursnes, Florentino, Kocku, Akturkoglu, Schjelderup, Pavlidis
The odds right now stand with Barcelona to progress at 4/11, on the other hand as expected Benfica are the underdogs with a 6/1 chance of progressing to the next stage.
I will predict a 1-1 result between the two teams, I believe that Benfica will surprise many people today by taking Barcelona to penalties after 120 minutes of football being played.
Unfortunately, if the game goes to penalties I believe that Barcelona will knock out Benfica meaning that they remain undefeated in the Champions league and they will be going through to the quarter finals of the competition.
