Controversial Raphinha winner seals nine-goal thriller for Barca at Benfica – INA NEWS

Raphinha struck a dramatic winner in stoppage time as Barcelona got here from behind to beat Benfica 5-4 in a wild match and nearly guarantee direct qualification to the Champions League final 16.

The house facet believed they need to have had a penalty within the build-up to the late strike by Barca after Leandro Barreiro gave the impression to be shoved within the again by Ferran Torres within the field. VAR appeared on the attraction, delaying the celebrations for what can be the profitable objective, however elected to not ask the referee to take a second take a look at his determination.

Benfica had been main 4-2 with beneath quarter-hour remaining within the sport on Tuesday however Barcelona mounted a surprising late comeback to remain three factors behind leaders Liverpool.

Vangelis Pavlidis hit a first-half hat-trick for the hosts, partly thanks to 2 large errors by Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Nonetheless, a Robert Lewandowski double from the penalty spot, an Eric Garcia’s header and a brace for Raphinha helped Barcelona declare a surprising late triumph in Lisbon.

Benfica opened the scoring within the second minute, when Pavlidis escaped Pau Cubarsi and fired house from Alvaro Carreras’s low cross.

Barcelona responded swiftly with Lewandowski scoring from the penalty spot after Alejandro Balde was introduced down by Benfica defender Tomas Araujo.

The hosts nosed again forward via a stroke of luck, when Szczesny raced out of his objective to attempt to reduce out a through-ball, however crashed into Balde.

Greece worldwide Pavlidis gleefully collected the unfastened ball and rolled his second into the empty web.

Barcelona, who lured Szczesny out of retirement to exchange the injured Marc-Andre ter Stegen in October, quickly fell additional behind.

Pavlidis accomplished his half-hour hat-trick with a penalty after one other Szczesny mistake, with the goalkeeper flying in to attempt to dispossess Kerem Akturkoglu, however bringing him down.

Lamine Yamal and Raphinha missed good probabilities earlier than the break as Barcelona pushed ahead.

Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin saved from Jules Kounde, who ought to have scored, and Lewandowski couldn’t flip house from Pedri’s harmful ball throughout the face of objective.

Raphinha pulled one again for Barcelona in weird style as a clearance by Trubin struck his head on the sting of the realm and flew again into the online.

Nonetheless, Benfica quickly struck once more, with Ronald Araujo nudging previous Szczesny into his personal web as he tried to chop out a cross.

Barcelona stored pushing and Lewandowski transformed one other penalty after Nicolas Otamendi introduced down Yamal.

The Catalan giants, who final gained the Champions League in 2015, pulled stage when substitute Garcia headed house from Pedri’s inviting cross.

Szczesny saved former Actual Madrid star Angel Di Maria’s low shot earlier than Raphinha’s dramatic winner.

With Benfica interesting for a penalty, Barcelona sprang a fast breakaway and the Brazilian winger slotted house to finish a blockbuster conflict.