Club Brugge 3-3 Barcelona: Hosts stun Spanish giants in frenzied draw
Barcelona secured a hard-fought point in Belgium as they battled to seal a dramatic 3-3 draw with Club Brugge on Wednesday.
Barcelona scrambled their way to a frantic 3-3 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Club Brugge took an unexpected lead just six minutes in at the Jan Breydelstadion, as Carlos Forbs beat the visitors' offside trap with ease before laying it on a platter for Nicolo Tresoldi.
But Barcelona hit back almost immediately through Ferran Torres, who capped a lovely pass from Fermin Lopez with a side-footed finish just two minutes later.
The end-to-end action continued from there as Fermin clipped the woodwork minutes later before Brugge restored their lead with another devastating counter-attack, with Forbs coolly curling past Wojciech Szczesny to make it 2-1 after just 17 minutes.
Jules Kounde and Eric Garcia both struck the goal frame as Barca tried their luck from range before Lamine Yamal finally drew them level just past the hour mark, carving through the Brugge defence with ease and poking home after a lovely back-heel pass from Fermin.
Brugge, though, continued to find joy against Barcelona's high defensive line and reclaimed the lead less than two minutes later, as Forbs again raced through and calmly slotted past Szczesny.
The hosts then saw a penalty call overturned after a VAR review as Forbs was adjudged to have made first contact with Balde inside the box, much to the dismay of the home fans.
The Blaugrana remained in the hunt late on and were fortunate to find an equaliser as Christos Tzolis unwittingly turned Yamal's curling cross into his own net in the 77th minute to level the match once again.
Romeo Vermant gave Brugge full licence to dream as he put them ahead in the 91st minute, nicking the ball off Szczesny and sliding into an open net, but the goal was disallowed for a foul following a VAR review.
The frantic end-to-end contest ended there with the spoils shared, leaving Barcelona 11th in the standings while Brugge sit 22nd.
Data Debrief: Brugge expose Barcelona's defensive struggles
Barcelona have now conceded in each of their last nine games in all competitions (14 goals in total) – their worst run without a clean sheet since March 2013 (13 games, 21 goals conceded).
Hansi Flick's side conceded twice inside the opening 16 minutes and 35 seconds on Wednesday – the earliest they have ever gone two goals down in a Champions League match.
There was plenty of goalmouth action, and very little separating the two teams, with both sides generating exactly 2.14 expected goals (xG), suggesting that a draw was a fair outcome.
Forbs (21 years 231 days), meanwhile, made history, becoming the youngest player to score and assist in a Champions League match against Barcelona, surpassing David Beckham's record set in September 1998 (23y, 137d).
