Despite the defeat against Barcelona by a single goal at the Estádio da Luz in the first leg of the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League, Bruno Lage, the head coach of Benfica, confirmed that his team still believes in their chances of qualification, vowing to the Catalan club a strong confrontation in the return leg.

Lage said: "The start of the match was good for us; we almost took the lead in the first 20 seconds, and in the final minutes, we were also close to scoring, but we failed to capitalize on the chances we had."

He added: "The most important thing for us is to appreciate the effort the players put in against a big team like Barcelona. Now we need to recover from this loss and prepare for our next match, and then we will head to Barcelona with only one goal in mind: to win and qualify for the quarter-finals. This is what I told the players after the match."

He continued, emphasizing: "Regardless of the result, the way we played and the number of chances we created prove that we have the ambition and determination to turn the result around in the return match."

On his part, Benfica midfielder Leandro Paredes expressed his frustration over the loss despite his team's numerical superiority after Barcelona defender Pau Torres was sent off, saying: "Playing against Barcelona with 11 players against 10 and not capitalizing on the opportunities is extremely frustrating. We missed a lot of chances, and even if we played an additional 10 or 20 minutes, we wouldn't have been able to score."

Paredes concluded his remarks with a message of defiance: "Anything is possible in the return match; we will go there to win and qualify."