Raphinha's stunning strike and Szczęsny's crucial saves helped 10-man Barcelona secure a narrow victory over Benfica.

Raphinha's stunning strike and Szczęsny's crucial saves helped 10-man Barcelona secure a narrow victory over Benfica.

Raphinha's second-half strike secured a heroic victory for Barcelona at Benfica on Wednesday, as they overcame a red card to Pau Cubarsí early in the match and took the advantage in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Barcelona’s teenage defender, Cubarsí, was sent off with a straight red card in the 22nd minute for a last-man foul on Vangelis Pavlidis. Despite being a man down, the visitors managed to hold their ground, with goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny delivering a spectacular performance. The Polish veteran made a series of crucial saves to keep Barcelona in the game, and his efforts were rewarded in the 61st minute when Raphinha capitalized on a poor defensive pass across the Benfica box, firing a low strike that deflected off a defender and found the back of the net just inside the left post.

Szczęsny, who came out of retirement to play for Barcelona after Marc-André ter Stegen sustained a torn knee ligament in September, was the standout player of the night.

“Szczęsny saved us many times today; he was outstanding,” said Barcelona midfielder Pedri to Movistar Plus. “You have to give a lot of credit to the team’s effort after going down to 10 men so early. On other days, it would have been harder for us, but today we defended really well.”

Szczęsny’s brilliance began just 30 seconds into the match when Pavlidis recovered the ball and passed it to Kerem Akturkoglu inside the box. The forward fired a low strike, but the 34-year-old goalkeeper denied him with a one-handed save.

Szczęsny made a total of eight saves, five of them coming in the second half as Benfica dominated possession, with over 60% and 15 shots on goal. Barcelona had only a couple of attempts, with Raphinha's effort being the only one on target in the second half.

Among Szczęsny’s best moments was a stunning reflex save to deny Fredrik Aursnes from close range early in the second half and an excellent stop to palm away Renato Sanches’s powerful shot from the edge of the box in added time.

“It’s a bad result; we had good chances today, especially after their red card... It’s very disappointing,” said Aursnes to Benfica TV. “We created a lot of chances, but unfortunately, we didn’t manage to score and paid a heavy price for that.”