Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis has answered Barcelona's interest in the best way possible: by lighting up the Europa League qualifiers for Benfica.
AS report that Barcelona are keeping tabs on Pavlidis as the situations of Julian Alvarez and Ferran Torres develop. The Greek, meanwhile, keeps dazzling.
Against St Gallen in the second leg of the Europa League second qualifying round, Pavlidis ran riot.
Benfica had a 2-1 first-leg defeat in Switzerland to overturn, and they did it in style. The Greek striker led the charge with four goals, a "super hat-trick", as Benfica won 5-0.
AS were unequivocal: "It was indeed an exceptional night for the Greek striker, in an attempt to tempt Barcelona, who are watching the player with keen interest."
If Pavlidis becomes the final target, prising him from Benfica will be anything but simple. Coach Marco Silva and the Portuguese club are banking on him in a season that is already up and running.
Few strikers outside Europe's big five leagues score at his rate. In 2025-2026, Pavlidis hit the 30-goal mark for a third season running and cleared 20 goals for a fifth consecutive campaign, spanning his time with AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands and Benfica in Portugal.
His Alkmaar record tells the story: 25 goals in 2021-2022, 22 in 2022-2023 and 33 in 2023-2024.
Those numbers convinced Benfica to spend 18 million euros on him. He has justified every cent, scoring 30 goals across his first two seasons with the Portuguese club.