Barcelona conceded a nightmare goal against Benfica in the Champions League after goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had a moment to forget.<\/p>\n
Hansi Flick\u2019s team fell behind 1-0 early to their Portuguese opponents before Robert Lewandowski equalized with a penalty in the 13th minute.<\/p>\n
However, just eight minutes later, they found themselves behind again due to a comical mistake by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.<\/p>\n
Szczesny, who joined Barcelona on a free transfer after Marc-Andre Ter Stegen\u2019s season-ending injury in September, had made several appearances as the backup to Inaki Pena. But in Lisbon, he had a nightmare moment. Rushing to intercept a lofted through ball from Benfica\u2019s Nicolas Otamendi, Szczesny was beaten to the ball by Barcelona\u2019s left-back Alex Balde, and his momentum caused him to collide with his teammate.<\/p>\n
Things got worse for Barcelona as the loose ball fell to Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis, who easily slotted it into an empty net.<\/p>\n
Watch the incident below.<\/p>\n
Szczesny\u2019s night took another turn for the worse in the 28th minute when he conceded a penalty, which was confidently converted by Vangelis Pavlidis to complete the Greek striker\u2019s hat-trick and put Benfica 3-1 ahead.<\/p>\n
Pavlidis became only the fourth player to score a hat-trick against Barcelona since the Champions League era began in 1992, joining an elite list that includes Faustino Asprilla, Andriy Shevchenko, and Kylian Mbappe.<\/p>\n
Barcelona entered the match with five wins from their first six Champions League games, placing them second in their group, just behind Liverpool. They had suffered a 2-1 loss to Monaco in their opening match but had bounced back by winning all subsequent games until their defeat to Benfica at the Est\u00e1dio da Luz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barcelona conceded a nightmare goal against Benfica in the Champions League after goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had a moment to forget. Hansi Flick\u2019s team fell behind 1-0 early to their Portuguese opponents before Robert Lewandowski equalized with a penalty in the 13th minute. However, just eight minutes later, they found themselves behind again due to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":31819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n