Late Show: Barca Edge Nine-Goal Thriller In UCL | Soccer Laduma
January 22, 2025
LISBON, PORTUGAL - JANUARY 21: Eric Garcia of FC Barcelona celebrates scoring his teams fourth goal with teammates during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7 match between SL Benfica and FC Barcelona at Estadio do SL Benfica on January 21, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Alex Pantling - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

LISBON, PORTUGAL – JANUARY 21: Eric Garcia of FC Barcelona celebrates scoring his teams fourth goal with teammates during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7 match between SL Benfica and FC Barcelona at Estadio do SL Benfica on January 21, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Alex Pantling – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Liverpool 2-2 Lille

Liverpool clinched top spot in the League Phase with a 2-1 victory over LOSC Lille at Anfield on Tuesday night.

After a quiet start, Arne Slot’s charges broke the deadlock after 33 minutes when a swift counter attack ended with Curtis Jones playing in Salah who slotted into the back of the net.

In doing so, the Egyptian star brought up his 50th goal for the Reds in European competitions.

Lille were then reduced to ten men on the hour mark when defender Aissa Mandi was given his marching orders for picking up his second yellow card.

Despite the red card, the French side pulled themselves level three minutes later when Jonathan David slotted home from close range.

However, Liverpool restored their lead in the 67th minute through substitute Harvey Elliot, whose strike from distance took a big deflection and sailed into the back of the net.

Benfica 4-5 Barcelona 

FC Barcelona booked their spot in the quarter-finals after a thrilling 5-4 win over Benfica on Tuesday evening.

The home side raced into an early lead as Vangelis Pavlidis found the back of the net by turning home a first-time cross from Alvaro Fernandez.

Barcelona weren’t behind for too long after being awarded a penalty for Tomas Araujo’s foul on Alejandre Balde, which allowed Robert Lewandowski to step up and convert from 12 yards.

Benfica hit back in quick succession as Pavlidis scored two goals in eight minutes to complete a first-half hat-trick.

The Catalans pulled another goal back through Raphinha on 64 minutes before Ronaldo Araujo’s own goal four minutes restored Benfica’s two-goal lead.

However, Hansi Flick’s charges hit back in the final 12 minutes as Lewandowski converted his second penalty on 78 minutes before Eric Garcia got the equaliser eight minutes later.

AS Monaco 1-0 Aston Villa 

Aston Villa missed the chance to cement their place in the top eight after losing 1-0 to AS Monaco.

The Ligue 1 outfit got the game’s only goal after eight minutes, which has seen the side move up to 13th spot.

Villa, meanwhile, find themselves in tenth position with one match to play.

Atletico Madrid 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen

Atletico Madrid rallied from behind to secure a 2-1 over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night.

The home side were reduced to ten men on 25 minutes when Pablo Barrios was shown a straight red card.

Leverkusen went on to take the lead on the stroke of halftime, with Piero Hincapie opening his account in the competition.

Diego Simeone’s charges got themselves back on level terms in the 52nd minute when Julian Alavrez shrugged off one challenge and fired home from close range.

Leverkusen were also reduced to ten men in the 76th minute after Hincapie’s sending off, before Alvarez bagged the winning goal in the 90th minute.

Other results:

Atalanta 5-0 Sturm

Bologna 2-1 Borussia Dortmund

Club Brugge 0-0 Juventus

Red Star 2-3 PSV Eindhoven

Slovan 1-3 Stuttgart

Source: https://www.snl24.com/soccerladuma/international/uefa-champions-league/uefa-champions-league-barcelona-leave-it-late-in-nine-goal-thriller-20250122

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