Darwin Nunez opened the scoring for the hosts within three minutes before Rafa Silva extended the lead in the second half and then Nunez added his second of the night.
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Barcelona suffered their second consecutive 3-0 defeat in the Champions League group stage after being demolished by Benfica in Lisbon on Wednesday. The Catalan club was beaten 3-0 by Bayern Munich in their opening match. Darwin Nunez opened the count for the hosts within three minutes before Rafa Silva extended the lead in the second half and then Nunez completed the drubbing with his second of the night. Ronald Koeman’s side are placed at the bottom of Group E and face an uphill struggle to qualify for the next round, if they fail to, it will be for the first time since 2003/04.
The hosts took the lead within 150 seconds of kick-off. Pedri, who was back in the Barca lineup after recovering from a muscle injury, lost the ball to Julian Weigl in the midfield. The German midfielder launched it over the defence for Nunez to chase and the Uruguayan took on Eric Garcia before firing the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen at the near post.
In response, Pedri played a brilliant through ball to release Frenkie De Jong inside the box and the Dutchman laid the ball to Luuk De Jong to tap-in into a seemingly empty net. But Lucas Verissimo made a last-ditch sliding tackle and denied Barca the equalizer. After that, Frenkie’s attempt from right-back Sergi Roberto’s low cross missed the target at the near post.
Pedri’s shot from outside the box went wide. Frenkie released Memphis Depay with a perfectly weighted through ball, but the Dutchman’s attempt was blocked by the defender and went out for a corner. Koeman tried to change things as he brought on Gavi for Gerard Pique in the 32nd minute. But the substitution wasn’t really effective.
In the second half, Nunez hit the post from out wide after rounding a stranded Ter Stegen, who made a blunder by charging out of his area. Depay delivered a beautiful in-swinging cross from the left flank for Roberto. But the 29-year-old’s attempt was brilliantly blocked by Alejandro Grimaldo at the far post.
In the 69th minute, Joao Mario played a one-two with Roman Yaremchuk to get inside the box and take a shot. Although Mario’s initial shot was blocked, Silva slotted in from the rebound to extend the lead.
And then, 11 minutes from time, Nunez completed the drubbing from the penalty spot after Sergino Dest handled the ball inside the box. Things got worse for the visitors as Eric Garcia was sent off for a second yellow card offence in the 87th minute.
“I’m not going to argue about the level of my team,” said Koeman “There’s no point in comparing this with Barcelona teams of years gone by. That’s as clear as water. I can only give you my opinion of my work at the club – I feel backed by my players and their attitude.”
“Benfica were strong physically and they’re quick. I think that for the first and second goals we just had to defend much better,” added Koeman.
“We had really good scoring chances and that’s how you change the direction of a match. The fact that Benfica put away the large majority of the few chances they actually created then that’s the big difference between the two teams.”
