Is FC Barcelona The Favorite To Win The Champions League?

FC Barcelona guaranteed qualification to the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday by beating Benfica convincingly in a last 16 second leg tie.

The Catalans boasted a 1-0 advantage earned in Lisbon from the first leg last week, and achieved the same scoreline inside 11 minutes as Raphinha once again netted at the Portuguese giant’s expense.

Nicolas Otamendi gave the home crowd in Montjuic a scare by pulling one back from a corner in quick succession, but Raphinha soon netted again (his fifth against Benfica in 2025 alone) as Lamine Yamal also netted a wonder goal before the interval.

There were no more successful strikes in the second half, meaning Barca advanced to the last eight with a 4-1 aggregate win.

Post-match, Hansi Flick made it clear that his team’s goal is to win the Champions League, while the likes of Lamine, Raphinha and Pedri want to do it for the first team doctor Carles Minarro who passed away at the weekend.

But while any team that is still in the competition has to dream of going all the way, Barca is now being talked up as the favorite to do so in Munich on May 31.

The Blaugrana is arguably the hottest team in Europe at the moment, with Liverpool - which won the league phase as Barca finished second - sent packing on penalties by PSG.

Next up for Barca is Lille or last season’s finalist Borussia Dortmund, and then Bayern Munich or Inter Milan in the semifinals.

Providing it gets through to meet the Bavarians, and they too overcome Milan, Barca will take courage from exorcizing the demons and trouncing his “bogeyman” in Europe in the league phase through a 4-1 triumph.

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Much of Barca’s mental damage on the continent comes from its 8-2 pummelling by Bayern in 2020, which was of course engineered by Flick.

Now Barca has the architect of that Lisbon nightmare on its side of the ball, but there is a lot of road ahead while the likes of PSG and the two Madrid clubs are on the other side of the ball and could be met in a potential final.

Let’s also not forget other years when Barca were being talked up as favorite but soon fell to Roma (2018) and Liverpool (2019).

Yet it isn’t forbidden for Culers to dream, and imagine what could be on the brink of summer.