Two La Liga giants, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid managed to grab important victories in their latest Champions League campaign on Tuesday. Barca snatched a thrilling 5-4 win over Benfica, while Atletico defeated Bundesliga defending champion, Bayer Leverkusen.
Raphinha the Hero for Barca in Win Over Benfica
Blaugrana didn’t have a positive start during their travel to the Portuguese outfit as Hansi Flick’s men found themselves 3-1 down at half-time. However, the chaotic match suddenly changed in favour of Barca in the 96 minutes as Raphinha scored his team’s winner finishing a swift counter-attacking move.
The Brazilian international has been performing superbly this season under Flick’s guidance and continues to produce excellent performances for Barcelona. Raphinha was showcasing his great form once again on midweek as aside from grabbing the late winner, he also netted his team’s second goal in that match.
Julian Alvarez Grabbed the Winner for Atletico Against Leverkusen
Meanwhile, another La Liga representative, Atletico also had a massive success as they defeated Leverkusen at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium. Diego Simeone’s men come back from a goal down before turning things around after the break with Alvarez’s brace.
The Argentinian international was simply the hero in that match as he netted his side’s equalizer in 52 minutes, cancelling Piero Hincapie’s opener for Leverkusen. Alvarez eventually completed Atleti’s comeback with his goal in the 90th minute.
It was far from an easy game as Los Rojiblancos had to play with 10 men since the 25th minute following Pablo Barrios’ sending-off. Fortunately for Atletico, they didn’t have to play the full 90 minutes with a man down as Hincapie eventually got sent off for Leverkusen in the 76th minute.
UCL Tuesday Full Results
Benfica 4-5 Barcelona; Atletico Madrid 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen; Crverna Zvezda 2-3 PSV; Liverpool 2-1 Lille; Club Brugge 0-0 Juventus; Slovan Bratislava 1-3 VfB Stuttgart; Bologna 2-1 Dortmund.
