Liverpool secured their place in the last-16 of the Champions League football tournament after beating Lille 2-1 at their home ground. Barcelona, on the other hand, fought back from two goals down at one point to beat Benfica 5-4 in a thrilling encounter.
Barcelona scored three goals in 18 minutes to win. Liverpool secured their seventh win in seven matches thanks to Harvey Elliott’s winning goal. Earlier, Mohamed Salah scored the first goal for Liverpool in the 34th minute. However, Lille leveled the score at 1-1 with the help of a goal scored by Canadian striker Jonathan David in the 62nd minute. Lille were forced to play the final 30 minutes with 10 players. Liverpool needed just one point from the match to secure a last-16 spot but continued their winning streak. Barcelona trailed 2-4 by the 75th minute. The Spanish giants struck back in the final 18 minutes. Rafinha scored in injury time. Barcelona have 18 points from seven matches and are second behind Liverpool. Liverpool have 21 points. Benfica’s Vangelis Pavlidis scored the third-fastest hat-trick of goals in the Champions League.
Robert Lewandowski scored twice on penalties for Barcelona. He is the top goal scorer in the Champions League with nine goals. Rafinha also scored two goals. Another Spanish club, Atletico Madrid, beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 thanks to a 90th-minute goal by Julian Alvarez. Atlético are third in the league.
