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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 inside 30 minutes to give Benfica a 3-1 lead at half-time. Raphinha pulled a goal back for Barca in the 64th minute but Ronald Araujo’s own goal restored the Portuguese side’s two-goal advantage.
But Barca hit back through Robert Lewandowski’s second penalty of the contest and Eric Garcia’s 86th-minute header. And the drama was not done there as, seconds after Benfica appealed for a penalty, Raphinha netted in the sixth minute of added time – with his winner confirmed after a lengthy VAR review.
Liverpool are also through to the last 16 after they made it seven wins from seven with a 3-1 win at home to Lille. All the other qualification places are still to play for 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. But Julian Alvarez equalised for the 10 men and, after Hincapie was shown a second yellow to even up the numbers, the former Manchester City man netted a 90th-minute winner.
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 were held to a goalless draw at Club Brugge – the Italian side’s 16th draw of the campaign in all competitions – while PSV Eindhoven won 3-2 at Red Star Belgrade and Stuttgart beat pointless Slovan Bratislava 3-1.
