FC Brugge and FC Barcelona put on a real spectacle in the premier class. In the end, the scoreboard on the fourth Champions League match day read 3:3 (2:1), with which the Belgians should be happier than the favorites, although the big surprise was in the air until the end.
Nicolo Tresoldi gave Bruges the lead in the 6th minute, Ferran Torres equalized (9th) before Carlos Forbs equalized at half-time (17th). In the second half, Lamine Yamal equalized again (61′), Forbs made it 3-2, and an own goal from Christos Tzolis made it 3-3 (77′). For Barcelona, the draw means seventh point and eleventh place in the Champions League table. The Spanish champions have only won three of their last seven competitive games. Brugge is in 22nd place with four points.
A lightning start to a wild game
The game had only been going on for a few minutes when the hosts showed that they would not have excessive respect for the favorites from Catalonia on Wednesday evening: Carlos Forbs started on the right wing and with his flat cross found the German-Italian Tresoldi, who was running along, who had no trouble in the middle to score his second Champions League goal in the fourth game (6th).
But Barcelona didn’t seem shocked at first, just 120 seconds later Klement Fermin had his eye on the energetic Ferran Torres, who handled the ball technically well and shot it in carefully to make it 1-1. The initial phase already hinted at what would follow: a crazy 90 minutes.
Barca presses, but Brugge scores the goal
In the 11th minute, Fermin hit the outside post with a curling shot for Hansi Flick’s team, and the Catalans were on the verge of turning the game around again. Instead, there was the next blow in the neck: Forbs, who had just prepared Tresoldi, was sent on his way by ex-Düsseldorf player Christos Tzolis on a counterattack and gave Wojchech Szczesny no chance in the Barca goal: 2-1 after 17 minutes. Hansi Flick’s team tried to respond again and put pressure on them, but goalkeeper Nordin Jackers deflected a shot from Joules Koundé onto the crossbar with his fingertips. Until the break, both teams still had various reasonable opportunities to score more goals, but the hosts still had a narrow lead.
Yamal hits beautifully, Forbs follows up again straight away
The same picture emerged in the second half: Barcelona had significantly more of the game, almost 80 percent of the ball at one point, but the hosts also remained dangerous: Szczesny had to cleverly shorten the angle in the 49th minute to prevent the score being 3-1, while at the other end Lamine Yamal was denied a great chance by Jackers (52′). The pressure for the Belgians grew by the minute, the 2-2 seemed more and more just a matter of time, Eric hit the crossbar from almost 30 meters after an hour – the Catalans’ third aluminum goal of the evening. A minute later the spell was broken: Yamal’s goal was one to click your tongue: first the youngster dribbled past two opponents in a small space, then Fermin passed it on very easily but decisively with his heel and Yamal put the ball past Jackers into the corner with his outside instep.
But defensively what Barcelona offered that evening was anything but solid: Hans Vanaken played a perfectly tempered long ball and the entire defensive line was undermined. The outstanding Forbs started off, didn’t hit the ball cleanly when he finished, but made the ball unstoppable for Szczesny – the 3-2 after 63 minutes. And the almost 30,000 spectators didn’t get any respite: Jackers defused a shot from Yamal (69th), then there was a penalty for Bruges, which, according to the video images, was rightly taken back (70th).
Bruges unlucky in the end
The final quarter of an hour began in a very unfortunate way for the Belgians: a Yamal cross from the right side was extended by Tzolis with his head so that it tumbled into the far corner to make it 3-3. But this completely wild game still had a final point: Romeo Vermant tackled Szczesny in stoppage time so that he won the ball and made it 4:3 – but here too the video referee intervened: The goal rightly did not count because Vermant did not touch the ball but the goalkeeper when he tackled. So it remained a draw, which was loudly cheered in the stadium. Rightly so.