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Barcelona Complete Unreal Champions League Comeback at Benfica
Blogs

Barcelona Complete Unreal Champions League Comeback at Benfica

22/01/25 11:48

Barca Drama

Barcelona have long had a complicated history with astonishing Champions League score lines. Think back to “La Remontada”, the remarkable second leg comeback against Paris St Germain which Barca won 6-1. Or conversely, the collapse against Liverpool in 2019, where four second leg goals without reply eliminated them, despite a 3-0 win in the first leg.

On Tuesday night, they added another ridiculous score line to their collection, this time a surreal, action-packed 5-4 win over Portuguese giants Benfica. The game had everything, from goalkeeper errors and hat-tricks, to unawarded penalties and the latest of late winners.

The fixture pitted two former Champions of Europe against each other, with Barca arriving in good form, having turned things around after a troubling festive period, while Benfica arrived as recently crowned Portuguese League Cup Champions, having defeated a dangerous Sporting Lisbon side on penalties in the final.

While the game was predicted to be tight, Barcelona were tipped to come through relatively comfortably after 90 minutes. However, the game would be anything but straightforward. It starts out with a cold, rainy night in Stoke … sorry, Lisbon. Force of habit.

How the Game Unfolded

The game sparked into life before much of the crowd had even found their seats; Alvaro Carreras found a pocket of space on the left hand side, and his low, whipped cross bounced into the path of Vangelis Pavlidis, who slotted past Wojciech Szczesny with ease to mark the start of an excellent night for the Greek striker.

However, Barca responded well, and earned an admittedly somewhat contentious penalty 10 minutes later, after Danny Makkelie stepped on Alejandro Balde’s foot, despite seemingly winning the ball. Fair decision or not, Robert Lewandowski did his job from the penalty spot, sending Anatoly Trubin the wrong way to level the scores.

Gavi almost gave Barcelona the lead for the first time 9 minutes later, when the ball bounced in his favour and saw him go one on one with Trubin, but the Benfica stopper was not to be beaten on this occasion, and made himself big to force the ball away from goal.

It was then the other goalkeepers turn to enter the spotlight. Szczesny announced his official retirement in the summer following Poland’s campaign at Euro 2024, but a cruciate ligament injury to Barca number one Marc-Ander Ter Stegen left them without a recognised first choice, keeper, and Szczesny came out of retirement to fill the void for the 2024/25 season.

While he had been generally impressive throughout his spell at his new club up to this point, he would have a 90 minutes from hell against Benfica. 21 minutes in, Nicolas Otamendi sprayed a long pass forward in search of winger Kerem Akturkoglu, which Szczesny opted to deal with himself.

However, instead of kicking the ball, he clattered his own defender Balde, taking both of them out of the action to gift Pavlidis an open goal and his second goal of the night.

Things would go from bad to worse for the Pole, as just seven minutes after his first error, he compounded it with another, taking out Akturkoglu in a foot race to the ball and handing Benfica a penalty, which Pavlidis duly converted to net the third fastest hat-trick in the first half of a Champions League game to give his side a two goal cushion.

Barcelona had a chance to cut the deficit to one just before half-time, but a scuffed volley from Raphinha allowed Benfica to go into the break 3-1 up, and they suddenly found themselves in the position of overwhelming favourites.

The first 15 or so minutes of the second period went by uneventfully, with Barcelona still reeling from Benfica’s first-half onslaught. However, when Pedri saw a shot from distance comfortably gathered by Trubin, no one could predict what happened next.

Trubin threw the ball to the ground and made what seemed to be a routine kick. However, the flight of the ball was so low that Raphinha, a full 20 yards away, found his head directly in its path. Deliberately, or totally inadvertently, the ball ricocheted off the side of his head into the corner of Trubin’s goal, surely the most bizarre goal anyone will see this season.

The Barca fans had barely finished celebrating when the scoreline changed once again. Tomas Araujo’s cross flashed across the Barcelona box to Schjelderup on the other side. Working a little space for himself, he rolled it back in towards Pavlidis, who was waiting on the edge of the six yard box for a certain goal.

Barca center back Ronald Araujo had to intervene to have any chance of keeping the deficit to one, but in stretching for the ball he prodded it past his own keeper and into his own goal, once again giving Benfica a two goal lead.

However, all was not lost for Barcelona. With 15 minutes left, Lamine Yamal went down after a push from Carreras, earning his sides second penalty of the night, and the games third. Lewandowski once again obliged from the spot, taking the scoreline to 4-3.

And Barcelona had only just started their push for the summit. Five minutes from the end of normal time, a corner kick was taken short to Pedri, who through quick feet earned himself the space to clip in a wicked, teasing cross, which Eric Garcia met perfectly, arcing his header over Trubin and into the back of the night for an astonishing eighth goal of the game.

Barca coach Hansi Flick was elated on the touchline, a testament to the character shown by his young side to keep coming back. But the game wasn’t settled yet.

Angel Di Maria, former tormentor of the Catalans during his spell with Real Madrid, and part of the heart-broken PSG side at the end of La Remontada, found himself clean through on goal after the Barca defence over-committed. However, Szczesny, perhaps in a bid to redeem his earlier errors, stood his ground and made a crucial save with his left foot, deflecting the ball to safety. It was a clutch moment from a man who himself would admit to having a howler of a performance.

And then in the 96th minute came the crowning glory on a game that is nailed on to go down as one of the Champions Leagues finest.

After a scramble in the Barcelona box, Leandro Barreiro found himself one on one, albeit with the ball not yet in his control. Just as he is about to strike at goal, he falls to the ground, under a push in the back by Fermin Lopez. The Lisbon crowd goes berserk, screaming and begging for a penalty, but the referee doesn’t oblige.

Hooked out of the area and away from the point of contention, the ball bounces to Ferran Torres, who looking up sees Raphinha in a one on one tussle with Carreras. Hitting the ball on the half-volley, he pings a world-class pass into the stride of Raphinha.

The Brazilian found himself in a wide position, with Carreras covering him and Tomas Araujo sprinting back to help out. So, with a lightning burst of pace, he cuts inside, steadies himself, and buries the ball into the near corner, setting off bedlam throughout the stadium.

Substitutes were running onto the pitch, the Benfica fans were in the brink of a riot over the penalty shout, and Benfica substitute Arthir Cabral even managed to receive a red card for his conduct following the goal.

After a lengthy VAR check over Benfica’s penalty claim, the goal was awarded, and just a minute later, the glorious sound of the final whistle confirmed that Barcelona had completed one of the most incredible comebacks in recent history.

The miraculous win kept them second in the league phase, and in the process guaranteed safe passage through to the round of 16. Their five goal haul also took their competition tally to 26, seven clear of the nearest competitors Dortmund.

Most importantly, the win sent a message. If they can come back from that sort of adversity in the single tie group fixtures, then who knows what Hansi Flick’s team can achieve when given two games to overcome an opponent.

What next for Barcelona and Benfica?

Barcelona may go into something of a lull after this result. The rush of adrenaline and endorphins following such an unpredictable win can leave any team emotionally and physically exhausted, but they only have five days to pick themselves up before a clash with Valencia in La Liga on Sunday.

For Benfica, it is a case of going into recovery mode. They will feel hard done by, and will feel even more strongly that they were undone by two penalty decisions; one in the first half on Balde, and the penalty that could have been in added time right at the end.

However, second in the Liga Portugal, there is still plenty for them to be optimistic about, and Bruno Lage’s team will want to bounce back with a vengeance in their next fixture against Casa Pia.

Benji Kosartiyer
Journalist
Harry Pascoe

Lead Writer

UEFA Europa League
23/01/25 20:00
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