Barcelona 3-1 Benfica (agg 4-1): Lamine Yamal makes history as Barcelona reach Champions League quarter-finals | OneFootball

Yamal scored a screamer to ensure Barca’s passage into the last eight

Teen sensation Lamine Yamal scored a magnificent goal to help Barcelona became the first team to reach the Champions League quarter-finals as a 3-1 home win against Benfica saw the Catalan giants prevail 4-1 on aggregate.

Barca led 1-0 after the first leg, which was won by Raphinha’s second-half strike, and the Brazilian continued his red-hot form by netting his 26th and 27th goals of an outstanding individual season.

Nicolas Otamendi levelled the match up just two minutes after Raphinha had scored the opener, but Hansi Flick’s side were just too good and did their business in the rest of the first half, when they registered all three of their goals on the night.

Barca become the first team to reach the last eight of the competition, where they will face the winner of the round of 16 tie between Borussia Dortmund and Lille. The score is 1-1 heading into Wednesday’s second leg in France.

Flick’s men took the lead on 11 minutes when Yamal turned two Benfica defenders inside out before his cross-cum-shot fell the way of Raphinha to convert.

Otamendi, the former Manchester City centre-back, levelled the match just two minutes later when he headed past Wojciech Szczesny from a corner.

That goal gave Benfica confidence of turning the tie on its head, but that task was made all the more difficult when Yamal scored a sensational goal from the right wing, curling the ball with his left foot into the top-left corner with very little power but the requisite accuracy to have Ukrainian goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin beaten all ends up.

Raphinha added his second and Barca’s third three minutes before half-time, receiving from a powerful run by Alejandro Balde — who was excellent throughout — and slamming into the net.

Referee Francois Letexier of France initially ruled the goal out for an offside and brandished a yellow card for Otamendi. But VAR suggested he award the goal, which he did, before cancelling Otamendi’s booking.

The clearest chance of a rather less frantic second half fell to Benfica and to substitute Zeki Amdouni, whose header from Otamendi’s cross was well blocked by Jules Kounde and then gathered by Szczesny.

La Liga leaders Barcelona are now unbeaten in 17 matches, nine in the Champions League, and the rest of Europe will have taken note of how routinely they dispatched with the side second in the Portuguese league.