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César Brito, Benfica's only goalscorer in Barcelona in the 1992 European Cup, stressed that the Greek striker "can be decisive" in the Champions League return.
Benfica's Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis scored a hat-trick against FC Barcelona in the league stage of the current edition of the Champions League and, last week, in the first leg of the round of 16 played at Da Luz, his role as a number 9 forced the expulsion of the Barça centre-back Pau Cubarsí, a setback that Barça overcame with a display of collective effort to end up winning that match 0-1. This Tuesday the second leg of the tie is played at Montjuïc and Benfica have placed a good part of their hopes of qualification on the performance of Pavlidis, who after those three goals he scored in January against the Barça team was uncovered. In the four visits that Benfica has visited FC Barcelona in the top European competition, the only scorer of the Lisbon club in the history of matches in the Catalan capital is convinced that Pavlidis can be "decisive", since he considers him a find for the club.
"Benfica hasn't had a player like him for years," praised César Brito, Benfica's only goalscorer against Barça in their previous visits to the Camp Nou, in statements collected by O Jogo. His best performance took place in the 1992 European Cup, in a match that ended 2-1 in favour of Barça and which took the Blaugrana team to the legendary Wembley final that gave the Blaugrana their first ever 'orejona' (big-eared trophy) with their victory over Sampdoria. In that Barça-Benfica match on 15 April 1992, Hristo Stoichkov and José Mari Bakero scored for the Blaugrana, while César Brito's goal only managed to close the scoreline with his goal in the 28th minute.
For Cesar Brito, who is now 60 years old and played for Benfica from 1988 to 1995, the Lisbon club made the right decision by signing the 26-year-old Greek. After contributing 80 goals and 27 assists in 137 games for Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, Benfica paid 18 million euros in the summer of 2024 for the striker. In his first season with Benfica, with whom he has a contract until 2029 and a buyout clause of 100 million euros, Pavlidis has so far scored 19 goals and provided 9 assists in 41 games. This Monday the Greek Federation announced its squad for the upcoming matches that the Hellenic national team will play against Scotland in the Nations League.
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