Barcelona wins 9-goal thriller against Benfica, Liverpool reaches last 16

Benfica 4, Barcelona 5

Liverpool became the first team to guarantee a place in the last 16 of the new Champions League format by beating Lille 2-1 yesterday [Macau time], while Barcelona fought back from two goals down to stun Benfica 5-4 in a thriller.

Harvey Elliott’s bouncing, deflected shot gave Liverpool its seventh win from seven games, just after 10-man Lille had equalized following Mohamed Salah’s opening goal.

Liverpool needed a point at Anfield to be sure of reaching the round of 16 as one of the top eight teams in the league stage, skipping the playoff round for teams ranked ninth to 24th.

Salah raced through in the 34th minute to sweep Liverpool ahead with his 22nd goal in all competitions this season. And when Lille’s Aissa Mandi was sent off just before the hour mark, Liverpool looked certain to extend its 100% record in the league phase.

But Anfield was stunned when Canada striker Jonathan David converted from close range to level the score in the 62nd. It didn’t take long for Liverpool to regain the lead through Elliott’s deflected effort five minutes later.

“All my life I’ve dreamt of playing Champions League football, not only for my boyhood club but to play here at Anfield in front of our fans and especially to score, it’s kind of a pinch-me moment,” Elliott said.

It was a night of high drama in the Champions League with 33 goals scored across nine games. Nine of them came in Barcelona’s battle with Benfica.

Raphinha scored in stoppage time to complete a rousing comeback as Barcelona won in Lisbon despite having been 4-2 down with less than a quarter of an hour remaining.

Benfica’s Vangelis Pavlidis scored the third-fastest hat trick at the start of a Champions League game, with two of his goals coming after errors by Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. Barcelona stays second with 18 points from seven games, and is now unbeaten in six games in all competitions since the new year.

“We came with the mindset that we could turn the game,” Raphinha said. “We never gave up and managed to grab a win.”

Robert Lewandowski scored two penalties for Barcelona to stay the Champions League’s top scorer on nine goals, one ahead of Raphinha, who also scored twice.

Another Spanish club staged a comeback as Julian Alvarez scored a 90th-minute winner to lift Atletico Madrid past Bayer Leverkusen 2-1. Atletico lost Pablo Barrios to a 23rd-minute red card and went into half time 1-0 down to a Piero Hincapie header for Leverkusen.

Alvarez scored in the 52nd and had the momentum when Hincapie was sent off for a second yellow card, before Alvarez struck again to take the win and lift Atletico to third.

With Prince William watching on, Aston Villa’s hopes of automatic qualification for the round of 16 took a blow after a 1-0 loss to Monaco.

Villa led the standings early in the league phase of the competition after winning its first three games. But defeat to Monaco left the Premier League club eighth. Wilfried Singo’s goal at a corner in the eighth minute was enough to secure the win for ninth-place Monaco.

Borussia Dortmund’s 2-1 loss at Bologna increased the pressure on coach Nuri Sahin in Dortmund’s fourth consecutive loss at the start of the new year in all competitions.

Serhou Guirassy gave Dortmund, last season’s runner-up, the lead with a chipped penalty and ran to celebrate with Sahin.

It looked like the Champions League could provide a much-needed boost for a team floundering in the Bundesliga, but two goals in two minutes from Thijs Dallinga and Samuel Iling-Junior changed the game for previously winless Bologna. JAMES ELLINGWORTH, MDT/AP