Raphinha scored a dramatic winner in stoppage time to hand Barcelona a thrilling 5-4 win over Benfica in the Champions League.
The Brazilian’s finish in the sixth minute of stoppage time secured a place in the last 16 for Barca, who came down from 4-2 down in a crazy game in Lisbon.
Vangelis Pavlidis’ first-half hat-trick saw Benfica race into a 3-1 lead despite Robert Lewandowski’s early equaliser before they restored their two-goal lead through Ronald Araujo’s own goal after Raphinha had reduced the deficit.
But Lewandowski’s penalty gave the LaLiga giants hope before Eric Garcia equalised with four minutes of normal time to play.
But just when a crazy encounter looked like ending level, up stepped Raphinha to slot home his second of the game and 22nd of the season to spark jubilant scenes for the away side, with Arthur Cabral then shown a red card on the bench.
Barca can now start plotting for the last 16 stage in March as they guaranteed second in the standings, while Benfica are left in 18th, three points behind the top eight.
📰 Table Of Contents
Alvarez double seals comeback win
They are set to be joined in the last 16 by Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid after Julian Alvarez scored twice in a comeback win over Bayer Leverkusen.
Leverkusen went ahead through Pedro Hincapie in first-half stoppage time after Atleti went down to 10 men after Pablo Barrios’ red card.
But former Manchester City striker Alvarez burst through to bring his side level after 52 minutes before the visitors’ numbers were reduced themselves when goalscorer Hincapie was dismissed.
Alvarez then scored what a crucial winner in the 90th minute when he rounded the goalkeeper to tap home to give Atleti a healthy buffer in the top-eight spots.
Dortmund slip up at Bologna
Borussia Dortmund suffered a huge blow to their hopes of reaching the last 16 after surrendering a one-goal lead in the second half to lose 2-1 to Bologna.
Dortmund were 1-0 through Serhou Guirassy’s penalty after 15 minutes and looked in a strong position to keep themselves in the race for the top eight.
But the Italian scored twice in two minutes with less than 20 minutes to play through Thijs Dallinga and Samuel Iling-Junior to leave them 13th.
Champions League Matchday 7 Tuesday results
Atalanta 5-0 Sturm Graz
Monaco 1-0 Aston Villa
Atletico Madrid 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Benfica 4-5 Barcelona
Red Star 2-3 PSV Eindhoven
Liverpool 2-1 Lille
Club Brugge 0-0 Juventus
Slovan Bratislava 1-3 Stuttgart
Bologna 2-1 Borussia Dortmund
