Raphael Dias Belloli known as Raphinha is playing arguably the best football in his career. The Brazilian winger exploded this season, when Hansi Flick took over the manager job, and he is not the only one. Robert Lewandowski also profited heavily from the arrival of his former Bayern coach, but there are a number of kids from Barca‘s famous academy who got their chance with Flick. However, Raphinha is among the best wingers in La Liga now with 20 goals and 11 assists in 29 games in all competition. But the Brazilian is ‘bothered‘ by a single stat which seems irellevant – a win over Benfica.Most key passes in Europe’s top five leagues this season:◎ 64 – Raphinha◎ 60 – Cole Palmer◎ 56 – Dejan Kulusevski◎ 54 – Junya Ito◎ 52 – Álex Baena pic.twitter.com/cmOc8911yJ— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) January 20, 2025 It seems unbelievable, but in all his career, Raphinha never defeated Benfica, a team which is facing Barcelona in the Champions Legue tonight. Two games before the first round of this competition, the Portuguese club is in the race for the top eight place but they need all wins in the last two rounds, Barcelona included. In regular circumstances, the Catalans wouldn’t be so determined to win as they are second on the table, but with all their financial troubles, any win in the most profitable UEFA competition is a must. And Raphinha is the man to do it. Before coming to Barcelona, he played for Leeds and Rennes, but even before that, he started his European adventure in Portugal. From 2015 until 2019 he played for Vitória Guimarães and Sporting and faced Benfica no less than eight times. The score? Zero victories.From Old Trafford to Camp Nou?The winger faced Benfica wearing the Vitoria de Guimaraes shirt on five occasions and all of them ended in the same way: defeat. The statistics are even more cruel since in these matches they only celebrated two goals and one of them was scored by Raphinha. In addition to losing in the four regular season matches, they also lost in the final of the Portuguese Super Cup. He was not better with Sporting either. He faced them on three occasions, which ended with a goalless draw and two defeats. He will be surely fired up tonight.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ROUND 7Tuesday20:45: (2.55) AS Monaco (3.50) Aston Villa (2.85)20:45: (1.22) Atalanta (6.50) Sturm Graz (12.0)23:00: (2.40) Atlético Madrid (3.45) Bayer Leverkusen (3.15)23:00: (3.10) Benfica (4.00) Barcelona (2.20)23:00: (3.40) Bologna (3.50) Borussia Dortmund (2.25)23:00: (3.30) Club Brugge (3.30) Juventus (2.25)23:00: (4.50) Crvena zvezda (4.05) PSV (1.80)23:00: (1.30) Liverpool (6.50) Lille (10.0)23:00: (10.0) Slovan Bratislava (6.50) Stuttgart (1.25)Wednesday20:45: (2.85) Leipzig (3.70) Sporting (2.45)20:45: (2.70) Shakhtar (3.10) Brest (2.75)23:00: (7.75) Sparta Praha (4.50) Inter (1.42)23:00: (1.12) Arsenal (11.0) Dinamo Zagreb (22.0)23:00: (1.38) Celtic (5.40) Young Boys (8.50)23:00: (6.75) Feyenoord (5.00) Bayern (1.43)23:00: (1.48) Milan (4.65) Girona (7.25)23:00: (2.50) PSG (3.80) Man City (2.75)23:00 (1.08) Real Madrid (14.0) RB Salzburg (30.0)***odds are subject to change***
