FC Barcelona qualified for the quarter finals of the Champions League after defeating Benfica (3-1) with a brace from Raphinha and a moment of genius from Lamine Yamal, in a great performance from the azulgranas, who sealed the tie in the first half, extending the 0-1 lead achieved in Lisbon.
A superb game that keeps Barça unbeaten so far this year and makes them a strong contender for the title. The MVP of the match went once again to the magician Pedri, but it could well have been Lamine Yamal who had an excellent game, silencing the rumours of recent weeks about the lack of goals from the young Barça player.
The last time he scored was on February 6th against Valencia in the Copa del Rey, but, without a doubt, the wait was worth it to see a star goal like the one he scored against Benfica on Tuesday. He got away from Tomas Araújo, looked for an angle and, from outside the area, he shot a soft curler into the top corner. A goal to shut mouths, preceded by a special assist to Raphinha for the first goal of the game. He drove forward, left his marker behind him, got rid of another with a brutal turn and set up Raphinha.
At 17 years and 241 days, Lamine Yamal is the second youngest goalscorer to score in a play-off, behind Bojan, now part of the club’s management team and watching from the stands. The club executive of today scored the goal at the age of 17 years and 217 days. That was not the only milestone achieved by the player. At his young age, he is the youngest player to score and assist in the same Champions League match.
With his achievements in Tuesday afternoon’s Champions League round of 16 second leg match against Benfica, Lamine Yamal has now scored three goals and provided three assists in nine matches in the Champions League so far, a tournament in which he had already scored against Monaco (2-1) and Atalanta (2-2) in the league phase. As for the assists, he had provided them against Bayern Munich (4-1) and Borussia Dortmund (2-3).
At the end of the match, the Barça player assessed his goal by comparing it to the one he scored in the European Championship he won with Spain in the summer. “Yes, I think it’s my best goal. I would put it on a par with the one I scored in the European Championship against France,” he acknowledged after the match.
As we said, before the goal the player gave a somewhat special assist that raised the question of whether what he really wanted to do was shoot, “I tried to shoot,” said an amused Lamine, who added: “I have to thank Raphinha who was attentive and was able to catch my shot and score. He’s having a very good season and I’m happy for him.” “I really enjoyed tonight. I love the second legs of the Champions League,” Lamine confessed.