Benfica 3-0 Barcelona: Player ratings as Barca stunned in Lisbon
Barcelona's recent bad fortunes in Lisbon continued on Wednesday as they slipped to an embarrassing 3-0 Champions League defeat to Benfica, 13 months after being humiliated 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Portuguese capital.
The defeat means the Blaugrana are without a point from their first two European games of the season, with manager Ronald Koeman seemingly hanging by a thread.
The hosts came out of the blocks quickly and took the lead inside three minutes. Julian Weigl split the back three with an excellent through ball which found the in-form Darwin Nunez. He then skinned Eric Garcia and was allowed plenty of time to pick his spot at the front post and make it 1-0.
Roman Yaremchuk missed a good chance to double Benfica's advantage soon after with Barça eventually growing into the game. Frenkie de Jong and Pedri both had half chances but the visitors side always looked vulnerable at the back.
Koeman eventually made the decision to drag Gerard Pique off on the half hour mark. Pique endured a horrific start to the game, being at fault for the opener and only narrowly avoiding a second yellow card.
Minutes after the break Nunez came agonisingly close to a second goal, taking the ball round a stricken Marc-Andre ter Stegen - who mistimed a piece of sweeper-keeping - before firing an effort onto the post.
Barcelona created very little in the second half and Benfica eventually gave themselves some breathing space when Rafa Silva reacted quickest to convert inside the box following a goalmouth scramble.
Things got even worse for Barça before full time too, with Sergino Dest penalised for a handball in the box. Nunez made no mistake from the spot, rubbing salt into their opponents' wounds. With four minutes left Eric Garcia was then sent off for a second bookable offence, capping off another chastening night for Barça at the Estadio de Luz.
Here are your player ratings...
Barcelona player ratings
1. Goalkeeper & defenders
Marc-Andre ter Stegen (GK) - 2/10 - Weirdly off form. Could have done better for the opener and was very lucky not to be punished was a misjudged attempt at an interception.
Ronald Araujo (CB) - 3/10 - At least seemed like he cared. Passion and heart don't win football matches, though.
Gerard Pique (CB) - 0/10 - Horrific. Embarrassing. Terrible. Awful. Bizarrely bad performance. Lucky to last 30 minutes to be honest. He may need another (involuntary) pay cut.
Eric Garcia (CB) - 1/10 - Almost as bad as Pique. Feeble effort when defending the first goal - the first in a long line of mistakes. Sent off at the end.
2. Wing-back & midfielders
Sergi Roberto (RWB) - 2/10 - Are we absolutely sure this guy was actually on the pitch?
Pedri (CM) - 4/10 - Just back from injury and looked rusty. The fact Barcelona could not function without him on form is a sad indictment of how reliant they are on him already...
Sergio Busquets (CM) - 4/10 - Meh. Slow and steady loses the race on this occasion.
Frenkie de Jong (CM) - 6/10 - One of his side's better players, especially when he tried to drive forward. Broke up play effectively too.
Sergino Dest (LWB) - 3/10 - Being played out of position but still, he was pretty awful. So predictable going forward and gave away a penalty.
3. Forwards
Luuk de Jong (ST) - 2/10 - Finishing was repugnant. He also seems so unsuited to this team. Why on earth they signed him is a mystery.
Memphis Depay (ST) - 5/10 - Not at the races at all. Touch was not good enough. At least he tried to make things happen, though.
4. Substitutes
Gavi - 5/10 - 17 years old and brought on to mop up the mess created by your so-called 'leader'.
Ansu Fati - 6/10 - Gave his best shot.
Nico Gonzalez - N/A - Meh.
Philippe Coutinho - N/A - What a waste of money.