Pedri confirms plans to give Man of the Match award to Barcelona teammate | OneFootball

Barcelona star Pedri has confirmed his intention to hand his latest Man of the Match award to a fellow member of Hansi Flick’s squad.

The player in question? Wojciech Szczęsny.

Goalkeeper Szczęsny, for those who may have missed it, is fresh off conjuring up nothing short of a masterclass between the posts on Wednesday night.

After Barcelona made the trip to Portugal for a Champions League meeting with Benfica, the Blaugrana found themselves a man down inside 25 minutes.

Benfica, in turn, piled on the pressure, carving out a whole host of goalscoring opportunities.

Time and time again, however, Szczęsny was there to hold Barca’s hosts at bay.

All told, the Pole racked up eight saves over the course of the 90 minutes, etching his name into the history books in the process:

Following a 1-0 triumph for Hansi Flick’s side on the evening, the Man of the Match award was handed to Pedri, who was also excellent across the duration of the clash.

Speaking to the media post-match, though, the Spaniard admitted that, so impressed was he by Szczęsny’s display, that his plan was to pass his trophy on to Barcelona’s in-form shot-stopper.

“Szczesny deserved the Man of the Match. I’m going to give my award to him. We talked about this.”

Conor Laird – GSFN