Alabart scored twice and Barça edged Benfica 4-3 in a tense Champions League semifinal to reach the final for the first time in eight years.
Sergi Fernández made important early saves and Barça held on after a frantic second half to secure victory and a date with Porto on Sunday at 7pm CEST.
The scoreline told a match of momentum swings: Alabart put Barça ahead four minutes in, only for João Rodrigues to level for Benfica at the same mark. The game turned in the second half as Marc Grau put Barça back in front at 33 minutes and Ferran Font extended the lead a minute later to make it 3-1.
Benfica fought back. João Rodrigues converted a penalty on 36 minutes to cut the deficit to one, and the Portuguese side stayed dangerous late, with Pau Bargalló pulling one back on 48 minutes to make it 4-3 and bite at Barça’s heels.
Alabart’s second strike at 43 minutes proved decisive. His two goals accounted for Barça’s margin in a match in which momentum flipped repeatedly and margins were thin.
Sergi Fernández’s early interventions set the tone. His saves in the opening stages kept Barça level when Benfica threatened, and those stops mattered when the visitors turned up the pressure after their late goal.
The numbers underline the drama: 4-3, two goals from Alabart, and one-goal contributions from Grau and Font, with Benfica’s replies coming at 4 minutes, 36 minutes and 48 minutes. The timeline shows how quickly the game could change — goals at 33 and 34 minutes put Barça in control, only for a penalty three minutes later to drag Benfica back in.
Barça have not been in this position since 2018, when they last won the Champions League in hockey against Porto. The final will be an all-Iberian affair: Barça will face Porto on Sunday at 7pm CEST, and the match doubles as a rematch of that 2018 decider in which Barcelona lifted the trophy.
The tension from the semifinal is obvious. Benfica’s quick equaliser after Barça opened the scoring and their comeback after falling 3-1 exposed gaps in both sides — Barça’s vulnerability to swift replies and Benfica’s inability to finish the recovery. Those contradictions will shape the final: Porto will study how Benfica clawed back but still fell short, and Barça will want to know why a two-goal cushion nearly disappeared.
For Alabart, the night was definitive. His pair of goals bookended Barça’s best moments and left him as the match-winner who sent the club back to a Champions League final after an eight-year absence.
Sunday’s final at 7pm CEST is the next, simple fact. If Barça can reproduce the composure that carried them through the opening minutes and the finishing that produced goals at 33 and 34 minutes, they will be favored. If Benfica’s late fight — and the moments that forced saves from Sergi Fernández — is any guide, the final promises to be tight and decided on small margins.
