Slavia Prague 2-4 Barcelona: Visitors bolster top-eight hopes with comeback win

Barcelona climbed to within touching distance of the Champions League top-eight places after coming from behind to beat Slavia Prague 4-2 in their penultimate game of the league phase.

Knowing they needed a win to keep their hopes of automatically reachiing the last 16 alive, Barca surprisingly went behind early on through Vasil Kusej but Fermin Lopez scored twice to make it 2-1, before a Robert Lewandowski own goal levelled the game again before half-time.

But after the break, a goal from substitute Dani Olmo restored the visitors’ advantage before Lewandowski made up for his own goal by scoring at the right end to seal the victory.

Hansi Flick’s side end the night in a much more favourable position to how they started as they sit ninth in the standings, level on points with a host of teams above them ahead of a favourable last game of the league phase at home to FC Copenhagen.

Barca stunned twice in first half

Barca should probably have gone in front early doors but Lopez blazed his shot over when in a great position in the centre of the box.

The Czech outfit took a surprise lead with less than 10 minutes on the clock when Michal Sadilek’s corner was helped across goal for Kusej to bundle into the back of the net and spark jubilant scenes – and resultanty throw Barca’s qualification hopes in doubt.

But on 34 minutes, Barca found the equaliser through Lopez, with the forward finishing off Frenkie de Jong’s through ball after some nice link-up play from Raphinha.

And the comeback was complete only a few minutes later as Lopez grabbed his second of the evening with a lovely strike from the edge of the box.

It looked as though Barca would kick on from there but the game was level within a matter of minutes when Lewandowski headed into his own net from a corner.

Barca show class after the break

It didn’t take long for Barca to get the first good chance of the second half as Pedri latched onto a ball nicely and his initial shot was saved before his second effort at the rebound was guided off target.

De Jong then had the ball in the back of the net after two Jindrich Stanech saves eventually found the way of the Dutchman to touch home, with the decision not to allow the goal upheld by VAR.

Olmo and Marcus Rashford entered the fray just after the hour mark and it took just two minutes for the former to get on the scoresheet, with the Spaniard picking up a loose ball and curling the ball into the top corner.

The Blaugrana were firmly in control with 20 minutes to play when another slick attack saw Rashford fizz the ball across goal to Lewandowski, whose first touch took the ball high before he rose highest to prod it in.

It was fairly comfortable from that moment on, although the winless hosts – now unable to qualify – deserve a huge amount of credit for the scare they provided their much-favoured opponents.