Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny collided in spectacular fashion with team-mate Alejandro Balde to hand Benfica the lead in their Champions League clash on Tuesday evening.
The Catalan side are in a strong position to secure their spot in the knockout stages of the competition, having won five, drawn one, and lost one of their ties this season.
But with two ties left to play, Hansi Flick’s side could yet see their grip on second place in the table weakened after falling behind to their Portuguese rivals.
Barcelona had fallen behind early on in the tie after Vangelis Pavlidis opened the scoring with Szczesny powerless to stop the hosts from getting on the board.
But the visitors trailed for only 11 minutes, before Balde drew a penalty with Robert Lewandowski conceded with minimum fuss.
However, after pulling level, the Blaugrana failed to make their ensuing dominance pay, and found themselves trailing again after a defensive howler.
Alejandro Balde and Wojciech Szczesny collided in spectacular fashion ahead of Benfica’s second goal
The players both had their sights firmly fixed on the ball coming down in the Barcelona half
The Benfica player netted two on a strong night for the hosts as they bid for a spot in the automatic qualification places
Sprinting off his line in an ambitious attempt to stop a Benfica player from picking up a long ball, Szczesny steamrollered into his team-mate Balde, also running for the ball.
Unattended, Pavlidis could scoop it up while both opposition players lay prone on the turf, and slalomed towards the unoccupied goal to bring Benfica up 2-1.
Fortunately, neither Balde nor Szczesny were significantly injured, but likely suffered a dent to their pride.
As the tie rolled on, however, the game twisted back and forth, with Barcelona falling 4-2 behind in the second-half.
But during a helter-skelter period of injury time, Raphina bagged his second on the night to help Flick’s men secure the 5-4 victory.
