Throughout the whole match Benfica players looked dangerous when they got the ball. Most of the times when the attacking fullbacks were pressing higher up on the pitch, the opposition got acres of space to burst in and launch their attacks. The link between the defensive line got interrupted most of the times due to substitutions and cards. 

When considering the midfield and the attack, the Barcelona midfielders created a few clear goal scoring opportunities but the attackers couldn’t capitalize on any of them. Another extremely abysmal display by the Barcelona’s new striker Luuk De Jong as he missed two outright goal scoring chances. The other dutchman Frenkie De Jong and young Pedri played a good game in midfield but due to the errors of the attack their efforts were in vein go in vain. After Koeman decided to switch the play and move Frenkie De Jong to center back position, the creativeness of the midfield as well as the balance of the team was gone. 

The two wingbacks had another awful game as Dest gave away an unnecessary penalty to the opposition which led to Benfica’s 3rd goal and Nunez’s 2nd of the night. Roberto was completely useless most of the times in attack due to his lack of pace and so there was no involvement of the right flank on Barcelona’s attack.

As usual, Koeman’s substitutes were also not very effective and they were badly timed as well. Just after the triple substitution in the 68th minute, Benfica scored their third which was a penalty, courtesy of Sergino Dest. Sergi Roberto, who had a rather ineffective game, was not substituted until late in the 89th minute and that also to adjust to Eric Garcia’s sending off. 

Even though Koeman made huge mistakes and wrong decisions, the Barcelona players, as a squad, also have to take responsibility for that defeat, which several players did after the game in the press conferences. Since the situation between the board and the Manager is not stable yet, let’s all hope everything will get solved and Barcelona will bounce back as soon as possible.

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