FC Barcelona’s Champions League Comeback Worth More Than $50 Million

FC Barcelona’s heroic comeback win over Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday could end up being worth over $50 million to the club as explained by official UEFA prize money figures and AS.

It looked as though it wasn’t meant to be the Catalans’ night in the Estadio da Luz, as they trailed the Lisbon giants by a two-goal margin twice.

At 4-2 down, however, Robert Lewandowski converted his second penalty ahead of Pedri setting up Eric Garcia for a headed equalizer.

Deep into injury time, MVP Raphinha, who later said he will “kill and die” for the team, thundered down the pitch to latch onto a Ferran Torres clearance, and fooled Anatoliy Trubin to take home all three points by completing his brace and netting an eighth goal in seven UCL appearances this term.

Hansi Flick confessed that he didn’t believe he’d lived a comeback like it. And while such a reassembled works wonders for morale as Barca heads into the business end of the season, it also helps line the club’s coffers at a time when it needs all the money it can get while still recovering from a financial crisis that threatened to close the doors to the Camp Nou completely at the turn of the decade.

As AS helps explain, the victory worth roughly $2.2 million (or exactly €2.1 million) means that Barca has pocked $13.1 million (€12.6 million) for the six of them it has achieved in the UCL league phase thus far, while taking scalps such as that of Flick’s former club Bayern Munich.

We can then add this amount to the $19.4 million (€18.6 million) for participation and the $11.5 million (€11 million) which beating Benfica brought in for simultaneously reaching the last 16.

That makes a total of around $43 million (€41.2 million) in the pot, but that could soon become $55.6 million (€53.3 million) by finishing in first in the league phase if Liverpool slips up, and also beating Europa League holders Atalanta next week on the last matchday of the preliminary phase.

In short, the Benfica epic kept Barca in line for what is potentially an even bigger payday.