Late drama as Atletico Madrid and Barca both take vital Champions League wins

MADRID, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Atletico Madrid came back from a goal down to beat Bayern Leverkusen 2-1 with a late goal from Julio Alvarez that puts the team very close to assuring its qualification for the last 16.

Alvarez won the game in the last minute when he ran onto a pass from Angel Correa as Bayer looked for a winning goal and was caught with men pushing forward.

Atletico began by allowing Bayer to control the ball while sitting deep and looking to play on the break. Atletico was reduced to 10 men after 24 minutes when midfielder Pablo Barrios was sent off after a VAR review for a high challenge that saw him leave his studs on Nordi Mukiele's calf.

Mukiele then provided the cross for Piero Hincapie to nod Bayer ahead on the stroke of halftime. Atletico was level against the run of play seven minutes into the second half when Alvarez ran onto a long ball, held off the defense and scored with his left foot.

It was 10 against 10 with 15 minutes left to play when Hincapie was shown a second yellow for a push on Giuliano Simeone, and with the extra space, Alvarez was able to score a goal that left Atletico with 15 points from seven games ahead of a visit to Saltzburg next week.

FC Barcelona booked its place in the last 16 of the competition after a dramatic 5-4 win away to Benfica after trailing 4-2.

Barca goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had a first half to forget as Vangelis Pavlidis scored a hat-trick in the opening 30 minutes.

The Greek scored after a rapid counterattack in just two minutes. After Robert Lewandowski's penalty in the ninth minute made it 1-1, Szczesny's horrible error gifted Pavlidis his second of the night.

The striker ran onto a through ball as the Barca defense pushed onto the halfway line. Instead of clearing the ball, Szczesny smashed into Barca defender Alejandro Balde, leaving Pavlidis to run through and score an open goal.

He was then harshly penalized for bringing down Kerem Akturkoglu, with Pavlidis scoring from the penalty spot.

Benfica goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin then joined the goalkeeping comedy club when his clearance hit Raphinha on the head and bounced straight back into his goal to bring Barca back into the game, but it was quickly 4-2 when Ronald Araujo put the ball into his own net while trying to cut out a cross in the 68th minute.

Lewandowski's second penalty of the game (and his 19th in the Champions League in his career) made it 4-3 in the 77th minute after Lamine Yamal went down under a very slight contact in the Benfica area.

Eric Garcia then stole in unmarked to head home a lovely cross from Pedri in the 86th minute.

Szczesny made a huge save to deny Angel Di Maria in injury time and Barca won the game with almost the last kick as Raphinha was sent clear from inside his own half to score, with the Benfica player appealing vehemently for a penalty. ■