Ranking wildest moments from Barcelona’s incredible, mind-boggling 5-4 win over Benfica in Champions League
he game had a little bit of everything, including multiple blunders and a dramatic late winner
Barcelona just pulled off one of the most impressive comebacks that we’ve seen this season to clinch their spot in the top eight of the Champions League league phase with a 5-4 victory over Benfica. As the goals would suggest, this was a wild one that featured a hat trick in the first 30 minutes of play by Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis, but it didn’t stop there with three penalties, an own goal, a red card, and even a header from outside the box, all while it rained like crazy. It also reportedly included a post-match scuffle between Raphinha and members of Benfica over alleged insults.
For some players such as Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and most of the defenders, it was a match to forget but with Benfica producing an xG of 3.28 and Barcelona having 3.69, there were plenty of moments to define what has arguably been the best match of the league phase so far. Let’s rank them.
- The 30-minute hat trick
If not for how the match ended, Pavlidis would’ve been the star scoring three goals on four shots and also forcing the own goal on Benfica’s fourth goal but it ended in a Barcelona victory knocking this down a few pegs. Starting the scoring within the first two minutes with a rocket from inside the box, Pavlidis showed what kind of a match this would be but he also got some help with Szczesny taking out his own defender on one of the goals.
