Barcelona edged an
instant classic at the Estádio da Luz on Tuesday. Re-live an
astonishing game with the best facts and Opta data in our Benfica
vs Barcelona stats page.
Barcelona and Benfica played out one of the most baffling
matches you are ever likely to watch as Hansi Flick’s men won 5-4
at the Estádio da Luz in a Champions League classic on Tuesday.
Benfica looked as though they were cruising to victory at times,
twice finding themselves two goals to the good.
But their Catalan visitors, to their credit, battled back and
scored a late winner, making it six wins in a row despite gifting
Benfica three goals.
And while the game will live long in the memory of anyone who
watched, it was a day to forget for most defenders and goalkeepers
involved.
Barcelona found themselves trailing within just two minutes,
Vangelis Pavlidis getting his first with an emphatic close-range
finish from Álvaro Carreras’ pinpoint left-wing cross.
Tomás Araújo felled Alejandro
Balde in the box 11 minutes later to give Barcelona the perfect
opportunity to level, and
Robert Lewandowski duly obliged.
But the visitors were then their own worst enemies.
First,
Wojciech Szczesny and Balde collided outside the area to leave
Pavlidis with an open goal; then, the Greek striker converted a
penalty of his own after the Barcelona goalkeeper fouled Kerem
Aktürkoğlu.
That was the first time since their infamous 8-2 defeat to
Bayern Munich in August 2020 that Barcelona had conceded three
goals in the first half of a Champions League game, while Pavlidis
became the first Greek to net a UCL hat-trick since Kostas
Mitroglou in 2013.
Barcelona pulled one back just past the hour in bizarre fashion
as Benfica goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin’s clearance ricocheted back
off Raphinha’s
head and looped in from 25 yards.
But just a few minutes later, Ronald
Araujo turned Andreas Schjelderup’s cross into his own net as
the deficit returned to two goals.
Barcelona were far from done, though.
Carreras conceded the game’s third penalty when clumsily fouling
Lamine
Yamal, allowing Lewandowski to get his second of the day – the
Pole’s 95% conversion rate from penalties (excluding shootouts) the
best of any player in Champions League history (minimum 7
penalties).
Then Eric
García struck to make it 4-4 in the 86th minute, seemingly
securing Barcelona a point – only, Raphinha had other ideas.
He burst on to Lewandowski’s hopeful clearance, made space for
himself and then smashed in Barcelona’s stoppage-time winner to
round off an incredible game.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the
Benfica vs Barcelona stats from their Champions League meeting at
Estádio da Luz.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected
goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives
you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats
on the game as well.
Benfica
vs Barcelona: Post-Match Facts
- Raphinha has been involved in more UEFA Champions League goals
than any other player this season (10 – 8 goals, 2 assists), while
his second goal this evening (95:08) was Barcelona’s latest winning
goal on record (since 2003-04) in the competition. - Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski has scored nine goals against
Benfica in the UEFA Champions League (scoring in each of his last
five appearances against them) with only Cristiano Ronaldo (10 vs
Juventus) netting more goals against a specific opponent in the
competition’s history. - Vangelis Pavlidis’ hat-trick for Benfica was the third fastest
from the start of a UEFA Champions League game (30 minutes) after
Robert Lewandowski vs FC Red Bull Salzburg in March 2022 (23
minutes) and Marco Simone vs Rosenborg in September 1996 (24
minutes). - Barcelona came from two goals down to win a European Cup/UEFA
Champions League game for the very first time, while this was the
second time Benfica have lost a game despite going two goals ahead
(2-3 vs Crvena Zvezda in September 1984). - This was the first game in UEFA Champions League history to
finish 5-4, with Barcelona becoming just the second side in the
competition’s history to win a game despite conceding 4+ goals
(Borussia Dortmund 8-4 Legia Warsaw in November 2016).
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