Barça and Liverpool, keeping an eye on the Champions League duel between Monaco and Benfica

The clubs ranked between ninth and twenty-fourth in the Champions League league phase are beginning to pay their penalty. The round of 32 matches will be played between Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as next week. This is the stage before the round of 16. These are two extra matches that those teams that finished in the top eight of the European league do not have to play. Liverpool and Barça, after qualifying for the knockout stages as first and second, have a bye in this round and their opponents will come out of Brest-PSG (0-3) or Benfica-Monaco.

On Tuesday, PSG won overwhelmingly against Brest at the Stade de Roudourou (0-3). Vitinha scored a penalty and Dembélé scored twice to put the Parisians ahead in the tie. The reality is that the tie is pretty much on track for the team led by Luis Enrique. So, unless there is a major surprise, they will be the opponent of FC Barcelona or Liverpool. On the other hand, this Wednesday Monaco and Benfica will face each other at the Stade Louis-II. It is a match that, a priori, is even, and the other opponent will emerge for first or second place in the European league.

Monaco has never beaten Benfica

This Wednesday, at 9:00 p.m. in the Principality of Monaco, two teams that have already faced each other in the league phase are scheduled to meet. Monaco goes into the Champions League round of 32 tie in seventeenth place, while Benfica is sixteenth. Both have achieved 4 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. Despite having the same points in the standings, the goal difference is in favour of the Portuguese team. In the fifth round of the first round of the European tournament they faced each other on the same stage, but it was 'As Águias' who took the victory (2-3).

The local team, which comes to the match after taking several important blows in this 2025, the last one a thrashing in Ligue 1 against PSG (4-1) that made it go from third to fourth in the table, has never beaten its visitor. They have played 3 matches, of which the Portuguese team has won 2 and the other has ended in a draw. The duels prior to this campaign have taken place in the 2014/2015 season, in a group stage in which the rouge et blanc team finished first and its rival last.

Benfica, with some recent absences such as Manu and Alexander Bah, as well as the question of whether Di María will be able to play after being substituted due to injury in the last match of the Portuguese League, will travel to Monaco to try to get the victory. This Wednesday's match will be the first leg, while the tie will be decided at the Estádio da Luz next Tuesday. Barça and Liverpool, pay attention to this match that will define the opponent in the round of 16 of one of the two.