Capitals - Saba:
Barcelona snatched a difficult and valuable victory from the stadium of its host, Benfica, Portugal, with a clean goal on Wednesday evening, in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League.
The Catalan team owes this victory to its Brazilian winger, Rafinha, who scored the only goal of the match in the 61st minute, as the ball reached him by mistake from Benfica's defense, so he took off and shot into the net.
Barcelona completed the match with ten players from the 22nd minute, after their defender Pau Coparsi was sent off with a direct red card for obstructing Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis on the edge of the penalty area to prevent him from being alone in front of the "Barça" goal.
With this victory, Barcelona put one foot in the next round, where another match awaits them in the second leg at home, the "Luis Companys Olympic" stadium, next Tuesday.
The winner of the Barcelona-Benfica match will face the winner of the Borussia Dortmund-Lille clash in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Liverpool also snatched a valuable victory over host Paris Saint-Germain with a clean goal, in the match that brought them together at the "Parc des Princes" stadium, in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League.
Liverpool relied on tight defense during most of the match, before snatching the winning goal in the 86th minute through substitute Harvey Elliott.
The goal came after a long pass from Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker towards the Paris Saint-Germain area, where Darwin Nunez took advantage of the ball and prepared it on a golden platter for Elliott, who converted it with a wonderful left-footed shot into the net.
With this valuable victory, Liverpool puts one foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, awaiting the second leg that will bring the two teams together next Tuesday at "Anfield" stadium.
According to the results of the tournament draw, the winner of the Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain match will face the winner of the Aston Villa and Club Brugge match in the quarter-finals, noting that Aston Villa had defeated Club Brugge yesterday at home with a score of 3-1 in the first leg of the round of 16.
In another match of the same round, Bayern Munich defeated its compatriot Bayer Leverkusen by three goals to none, scored by Harry Kane with two goals in the 9th and 75th minutes, and Jamal Musiala in the 54th minute, to come close to qualifying for the quarter-finals.
The two teams will meet next week at Bayer Leverkusen Stadium.
| more of (International) |