FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick confessed that he has “never lived a comeback like this before” … [+] after the Catalans beat Benfica 5-4 in the Champions League on Tuesday to guarantee automatic qualification for the elite European competition’s knockout phase.
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FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick confessed that he has “never lived a comeback like this before”, after the Catalans beat Benfica 5-4 in the Champions League on Tuesday to guarantee automatic qualification to the elite European competition’s knockout phase.
Barca went 1-0 down inside two minutes and trailed by a two-goal margin twice in Estadio da Luz amid Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis completing a first half hat trick in just over 30 minutes.
Raphinha made it 3-2 shortly after the interval, yet there was another setback in store in quick succession as Ronald Araujo converted a cross into his own net past Wojciech Szczesny.
Down but not out, though, the Blaugrana was given hope by a second Robert Lewandowski penalty prior to Eric Garcia beating Anatoliy Trubin with a bullet header made possible by Pedri’s delightful cross.
Then in the 94th minute, Raphinha ran as if his life depending on meeting a thunderous Ferran Torres clearance out of the Barca half and scored the winner.
And as the Brazilian confessed that he is in the best moment of his career and will “kill and die for this team”, Flick made some admissions of his own following the full time whistle.
“It was a crazy game. The best thing was the mentality. This is football. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a comeback like this,” he told Movistar.
-Complimenting Benfica, Flick said that the Lisbon giants are “very good in transitions” and punished Barca.
“They forced us to defend very deep, as we were not well positioned. The substitutions helped us a lot,” Flick added.
Though the penalty that allowed Pavlidis to complete his hat trick was soft, Szczesny was definitely to blame for the second goal where he misjudged a run out of the box and clattered into left back Alejandro Balde making it easy for the target man to give Benfica the lead again.
Asked about the Pole’s error, Flick posed a question himself.
“Which player doesn’t make mistakes? We all make them. We win and lose together. I liked what I saw in the second half,” he stated.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Flick said that “we don’t think about being calm” just because passage to the last 16 has been granted.
“For us it’s important to focus on Valencia [in La Liga] now, and then Atalanta. We don’t think about being calm. We want to beat Atalanta as well,” he stressed.
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