Benfica 4-5 Barcelona: Player Ratings From the Craziest Game of the Champions League Season

SI Soccer

·21 January 2025

Benfica 4-5 Barcelona: Player Ratings From the Craziest Game of the Champions League Season

Barcelona came back from two goals down with 15 minutes to go to defeat Benfica 5-4 and secure their place in the Champions League round of 16.

It was a chaotic and nightmarish first half for Hansi Flick's side. With fans still walking to their seats, Vangelis Pavlidis opened the scoring two minutes into the match. Robert Lewandowski leveled the scoring from the penalty spot, but things quickly worsened for the visitors.

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Wojciech Szczęsny mistakenly left his box to try to clear a ball that was being tracked by Alejandro Balde. The Polish goalkeeper ran into his teammate and left the ball on a platter for Pavlidis to seal his brace. Less than 10 minutes later, Szczęsny made a clumsy tackle inside the box, and Pavlidis sealed his hat-trick from the penalty spot.

Heavy rainfall for the final 45 minutes meant the chaos continued. Barcelona got within one thanks to an egregious mistake by goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin, who in his desire to clear the ball hit it directly into the path of Raphinha who didn't even have to move and just let the ball bounce from his head into the back of the net. The joy would be short-lived, though, as Ronald Araújo scored an own-goal to restore Benfica's two goal lead 68 minutes in.

Plenty of action remained for the final 15 minutes. Barcelona won a penalty after a clumsy action, and Lewandowski fired in his 103rd UCL goal. The Blaugrana went all out in search of an equalizer and in the 87th minute, Pedri found a charging Eric García who headed the ball home to bring the game level.

Deep into stoppage time, Benfica's claim for a penalty was ignored and Barcelona cleared the ball, with Ferran Torres sending Raphinha off and running. The Brazilian entered the box, cut to his left, and fired home the game winning goal in a scintillating match.

The Blaugrana punched their ticket to the Champions League round of 16 with a brilliant comeback. Now, Flick's side will turn their attention to getting back to winning ways in La Liga.