Champions League Recap: Barcelona And Atletico Madrid Stage Miraculous Comebacks While Villa Suffers Stunning Defeat

Barcelona recorded an astonishing 5-4 victory at Benfica that booked the Spanish giants’ place in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Vangelis Pavlidis scored a hat-trick within the first 30 minutes, putting Benfica ahead 3-1 by halftime. Raphinha managed to reduce the deficit for Barcelona with a goal in the 64th minute, but an own goal by Ronald Araujo reinstated Benfica’s two-goal lead.

However, Barcelona responded with Robert Lewandowski scoring his second penalty of the match, followed by an 86th-minute header from Eric Garcia. The excitement continued as, just moments after Benfica’s appeal for a penalty, Raphinha scored the winning goal in the sixth minute of added time, which was confirmed after an extensive VAR review.

Liverpool has secured a spot in the last 16 after achieving seven consecutive victories, including a 3-1 win at home against Lille. All other qualification spots remain up for grabs in the first season of the new Champions League format.

Atletico Madrid moved up to third thanks to a late 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen. Piero Hincapie gave the Germans a first-half lead after Atletico’s Pablo Barrios had been sent off.

However, Julian Alvarez leveled the score for the ten men, and after Hincapie received a second yellow card, equalizing the player count, the former Manchester City striker scored the winning goal in the 90th minute.

Atalanta are fourth after thrashing Sturm Graz 5-0, moving above Aston Villa after Unai Emery’s men lost 1-0 to Monaco.

Bologna recorded their first Champions League group stage victory by coming from behind to beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1.

Serhou Guirassy gave last season’s runners-up the lead from the spot but two goals in two minutes from Thijs Dallinga and Villa loanee Samuel Iling-Junior turned the game on its head in the final 20 minutes.

Juventus played to a goalless draw against Club Brugge, marking the Italian team’s 16th draw of the season across all competitions.

Meanwhile, PSV Eindhoven triumphed with a 3-2 victory over Red Star Belgrade, and Stuttgart secured a 3-1 win against the winless Slovan Bratislava.