{"id":9396,"date":"2025-03-19T09:51:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/?p=9396"},"modified":"2025-03-19T09:51:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:51:28","slug":"raphinha-strike-earns-barca-win-at-benfica-and-top-8-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/archives\/9396","title":{"rendered":"Raphinha strike earns Barca win at Benfica and top-8 spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class='\"Story__Header\"'>\n<div class='\"Story__Byline' story-margin flex justify-between items-center>\n<section class='\"Byline' flex items-center>\n<div class='\"Byline__Content\"'>\n<div class='\"Byline__Group\"' aria-label='\"By' reuters>\n\n\n\n<div class='\"Story__Body' t__body>\n<p>Barcelona&rsquo;s\u00a0Raphinha\u00a0scored deep into stoppage time to hand his side a dramatic 5-4 comeback win at\u00a0Benfica\u00a0to seal a place in the top of the Champions League table on Tuesday. This came after a hat trick from\u00a0Vangelis Pavlidis\u00a0gave the hosts a two-goal half-time lead.\n</p><p>The Catalans continued their recent poor La Liga form with a shaky start at the Estadio da Luz, while coach Hansi Flick&rsquo;s decision to start goalkeeper\u00a0Wojciech Szczesny\u00a0raised questions after the Polish keeper&rsquo;s mistakes led to two Benfica goals.\n</p><p>But Flick&rsquo;s team fought back late in the game to secure their spot in the next round, sitting second with 18 points from seven games heading into next week&rsquo;s final group-stage fixtures.\n</p><p>Benfica missed out on a win that would have brought them closer to the top eight, who automatically qualify for the last 16, and instead dropped to 18th with 10 points among the playoff spots.\n</p><p>&ldquo;We knew it was going to be a difficult game. I know how difficult it is to play here against Benfica. They have players of the highest level,&rdquo; former Sporting forward Raphinha told Movistar.\n</p><p>&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t let ourselves get carried away when we were 3-1 down. It was a spectacular match for the spectators. Anyone could have won.&rdquo;\n</p><p>Greek striker Pavlidis opened the scoring after two minutes with a tap-in before\u00a0Robert Lewandowski\u00a0equalized from the spot as the VAR awarded Barca a penalty for a\u00a0Tom\u00e1s Ara\u00fajo\u00a0foul on\u00a0Alejandro Balde\u00a0in the 11th minute.\n</p><p>Pavlidis restored Benfica&rsquo;s lead, capitalizing on a poor run out by goalkeeper\u00a0Wojciech Szczesny, who left the forward with an open goal. The 26-year-old bagged his third with a penalty after Szczesny fouled\u00a0Kerem Akt\u00fcrkoglu\u00a0on the half-hour mark.\n</p><p>&nbsp;\n<section id='\"\"' class='\"InlinePhoto' story-margin>\n<figure class='\"Image' aspect-ratio--parent inlinephoto story-margin>\n<div class='\"RatioFrame' aspect-ratio--auto>\n<div class='\"Image__Wrapper' image__wrapper--relative><img decoding='\"async\"' class='\"\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/a.espncdn.com%5C/photo%5C/2025%5C/0121%5C/r1441585_1296x729_16-9.jpg%5C%22" alt='\"Barcelona' players celebrate after scoring a goal against benfica in the champions league. data-mptype='\"image\"'><figcaption class='\"Image__Caption\"'>Barcelona players celebrate after scoring a goal against Benfica in the Champions League.<div class='\"Image__Citation\"'>\n<div class='\"Image__Citation__Credit\"'>\n\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>&nbsp;\n</p><p>A blunder by Benfica keeper\u00a0Anatoliy Trubin\u00a0also proved costly as he cleared the ball straight onto Raphinha&rsquo;s head and into the net for a bizarre goal as the visitors pulled one back in the 64th minute to make it 3-2.\n</p><p>Barcelona&rsquo;s defensive misfortune continued, however, and Benfica extended their lead again four minutes later thanks to an own goal from\u00a0Ronald Ara\u00fajo\u00a0before Lewandowski scored his second with another clinical penalty in the 78th.\n</p><p>Substitute\u00a0Eric Garc\u00eda\u00a0then equalized with a towering header from a fine\u00a0Pedri\u00a0cross three minutes from time. Raphinha then found the winner six minutes into stoppage time from a quick counter-attack that stunned the home crowd.\n</p><p>&ldquo;It was an incredible victory. The team didn&rsquo;t lose their heads throughout the game,&rdquo; defender Garcia said. &ldquo;When you start the game losing, it messes your plans.\n</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to qualify for the next round. We came with this objective in mind.&rdquo;\n</p><p>Bar\u00e7a host\u00a0Atalanta\u00a0in their final first phase game next Wednesday when Benfica will look to bounce back at\u00a0Juventus.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"</p><p>Barcelona&rsquo;s\u00a0Raphinha\u00a0scored deep into stoppage time to hand his side a dramatic 5-4 comeback win at\u00a0Benfica\u00a0to seal a place in the top of the Champions League table on Tuesday. This came &hellip; \n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9398,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396\/revisions\/9398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p></div></div></figcaption></div></div></figure></section></p></div></div></div></section></div></header>