Robert Lewandowski kept Barcelona’s Champions League campaign alive in the most dramatic fashion having been staring down the barrel of elimination of group-stage elimination for the second year in a row after Robin Gosens scored with just a minute of normal time remaining.
Goals from Lautaro Martinez and Nicolo Barella had given Inter Milan the lead at the Nou Camp despite Ousmane Dembele’s opener.
Barcelona equalised through Lewandowski in the 82nd minute to make it 2-2, a lifesaver of a goal given their precarious financial circumstances, but Catalan hearts seemed to have been broke by Gosens, who finished off a move started by goalkeeper Andre Onana.
However, Lewandowski found the net again with his head to ensure Barca’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages will go on until they face Bayern Munich in two weeks’ time at least.
Champions League results, Wednesday 12 October
- Atletico Madrid 0-0 Club Brugge
- Napoli 4-2 Ajax
- Barcelona 3-3 Inter
- Bayer Leverkusen 0-3 Porto
- Plzen 2-4 Bayern Munich
- Rangers 1-7 Liverpool
- Sporting 0-2 Marseille
- Spurs 3-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Some silver lining for Gers
Scott Arfield ended a 12-year wait for Rangers when he scored their first Champions League goal since Kenny Miller in 2010.
The Gers had in fact already been eliminated from Group C, which featured Manchester United and Valencia, when Miller opened the scoring against Bursaspor in their final fixture. Sercan Yildirim ended up equalising 11 minutes from time but no one could have imagined that it would have been the club’s last goal in Europe’s premier club competition for more than a decade, during which time they would go to the brink of oblivion and back again.
Just listen to the noise at Ibrox!
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 12, 2022
Scott Arfield scores Rangers' first Champions League goal in 12 years#UCL pic.twitter.com/2ZdlGSDx8p
Arfield had previous against Liverpool, having scored for Burnley in a 1-1 draw at Anfield back in 2017. On that occasion the Clarets held the lead for just three minutes and his current side fared little better, Roberto Firmino drawing the visitors level at Ibrox seven minutes after Arfield ghosted between Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez to score.
And it was all downhill from that point for Rangers though as Liverpool ran riot, Mo Salah scoring the fastest hattrick in Champions League history off the bench as part of his contribution to a 7-1 win. They might hope their next goal in Europe is not followed by quite so many in the other direction.
Kvara-dona
Some English sub-editors will be having nightmares about Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, but so will Jorge Sanchez, the 24-year-old right-back who was making his first start of the season and was given a torrid time by the Georgian.
Napoli booked their place in the knockout stages with a win over Ajax at the Diego Maradona Stadium, and the capacity crowd stood to give their winger a standing ovation after his virtuoso performance led them to a 4-2 victory.
He had previously been playing for Rubin Kazan before foreign players in Russia had their contracts suspended. He subsequently signed for Georgian club Dinamo Batumi and in the summer he then joined Napoli for a reported fee of around £10m.
Son of former Azerbaijan international Badri Kvaratskhelia, the 21-year-old Georgian now has 14 goal involvements this season after a penalty and an assist against Ajax, and while his run in the first five minutes will not be credited with an assist, it was his mazy dribble down the left that eventually allowed Hirving Lozano to score the opener.
Kane’s blind spot
Harry Kane hurt his record on penalties and free-kicks on Wednesday night although Spurs did still emerge 3-2 victors over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Kane’s penalty gave Spurs the lead after just 28 minutes at the Tottenham Stadium, completing the turnaround after Daichi Kamada had opened the scoring 14 minutes earlier.
According to Opta, it was Kane’s 33rd successful spotkick across the Premier League and Champions League, having taken (at that point) a total of 37, but he later missed his 38th, the fifth one he has failed to convert for Tottenham.
He also added to his tally of free-kicks missed, much to the chagrin of Spurs fans, who have now seen him take 62 direct free-kicks… and score just one.
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