Three talking points from Benfica 4-5 Barcelona

Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images

A wild win at the Estadio da Luz

What. A. Comeback

Barcelona beat Benfica 5-4 in the Champions League on Tuesday in what was the game of the season so far and undoubtedly one of the club’s wildest ever wins.

The match had just about everything: bags of goals, penalties, goalkeeping howlers, bucketloads of rain, the weirdest header Raphinha will ever score, raucous celebrations, and Benfica getting a very public telling off on the pitch from manager Bruno Lage after twice throwing away a two-goal lead.

Hansi Flick admitted he’d never seen anything like it before, while Pau Cubarsi called it the “craziest” game he had ever experienced. It was simply unforgettable stuff.

| Incredible scenes at da Luz!

• xG: 3.28 – 3.69
• Shots (on target): 10 (5) – 22 (11)
• Big chances: 6 – 7
• Touches in pen. area: 22 – 34
• Possession: 25% – 75%

Barcelona were 3–1 and 4–2 (in the 77th minute!) down, but they didn't give up and it paid off! … pic.twitter.com/ZRIdsOe27L

— Sofascore Football (@SofascoreINT) January 21, 2025

Barcelona deserve credit for never giving up, don’t forget they were still 4-2 down with 12 minutes of normal time remaining, but then scored three times to steal the three points and a place in the last 16.

Hansi Flick’s attacking changes helped, as did a second penalty from Robert Lewandowski. Eric Garcia then gave Barca second thoughts about selling him this winter with a great header from a Pedri cross.

At 4-4 there was still time for plenty more drama. Benfica claimed a penalty after all sorts of chaos but play rightly continued, with Raphinha racing up the other end of the pitch, slotting home and being quickly mobbed by his team-mates.

As the one and only Johan Cruyff once famously said: “I’d rather win 5-4 than 1-0.”

What now for Szczesny?

Wojciech Szczęsny had a big part to play in the unforgettable win after being handed a start in goal against Benfica ahead of Inaki Pena. Flick talked him up as a “one of the club’s best signings” ahead of kick-off but it really didn’t look like that in Portugal.

With the scores still at 1-1, and Barca on the front foot after equalising, Szczesny came racing out of his goal and succeeded only in taking out Alejandro Balde and allowing Vangelis Pavlidis the simple task of putting the ball into an empty net.

Photo by Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images

Less than 10 minutes later, Szczesny handed Benfica another goal. Another rash attempt to find the ball ended with the stopper taking out Kerem Aktürkoğlu and conceding a penalty. Up stepped Pavlidis again to complete a hat-trick against Barcelona after only 30 minutes.

Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images

Benfica’s fourth goal also came from more dubious defending. Szczesny looked to have the situation covered but didn’t seem to communicate that to Araujo who poked past his goalkeeper for 4-2.

Szczesny did manage to cut out the mistakes after that and did make a good stop from Angel Di Maria, who looked set to seal the victory late on, which will have restored a little bit of pride.

Flick defended his stopper after the match, as you would expect, but the goalkeeper’s horror show comes after his red card against Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup. You have to wonder if we’ll see Szczesny again any time soon in the starting XI.

Barca through but doubts remain

The win sends Barcelona automatically through to the last 16 of the competition, along with Liverpool, which is great news for the club. Teams won’t want to draw either club in the next round but this win did show up Barca’s weaknesses once again.

Flick’s high line was exposed on a regular basis, as Benfica scored four times and looked dangerous almost every time they attacked.

Barca’s offside trap has worked wonderfully well this season (just ask Kylian Mbappe) but is also susceptible to third-man runs and cross-field balls played over the top - something Benfica used to good effect on Tuesday.

The first ever 5-4 in #UCL history pic.twitter.com/9Qf9uNPIxI

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) January 22, 2025

Flick acknowledged his team have plenty to learn defensively after the game.

“Benfica did really well, especially in the first half, but we made a lot of mistakes. We didn’t defend very good. It’s important we speak about this,” he said

“The next opponents will look at this match and we have to make it better. We will do that. At half-time we said we wanted to change something; we need better positioning. And we said we want to come back.”

On the plus side, Barca are far and away the competition’s top scorers. The Catalans have now netted 26 times in seven games - 11 more than table-topping Liverpool - showing that scoring goals in Europe is certainly not a problem Flick has to worry about this season.

Source: barcablaugranes.com