Sporting become fifth team in UCL history to overturn three-goal deficit

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The Football Faithful

·18 March 2026

Sporting become fifth team in UCL history to overturn three-goal deficit

Sporting Lisbon have become only the fifth team in Champions League history to overturn a three-goal deficit in a knockout stage tie.

The Portuguese champions ended Bodo/Glimt’s fairytale run in the competition with a 5-0 win, after extra-time, in Lisbon on Tuesday night.

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Sporting had been stunned in their first meeting with Bodo, losing 3-0 on the Norwegian’s plastic pitch. However, goals from Goncalo Inacio, Pedro Goncalves and Luis Suarez forced extra-time in the return, before Maximiliano Araujo and Rafael Nel sealed progress.

The win secured a 5-3 aggregate win for Sporting and set up a quarter-final clash against Arsenal.

Sporting’s win was only the fifth team that a team has recovered from a defeat of three or more goals in the first leg of a Champions League tie.

Deportivo La Coruna were the first team to achieve the feat, after eliminating holders AC Milan during the 2003-04 campaign. The Spaniards lost 4-1 at San Siro in the first leg, but staged a thrilling comeback to win 4-0 in the return.

Barcelona are the only team to have recovered a four-goal deficit. The Catalans crumbled at Paris Saint-Germain to lose 4-0 in 2016-17, but an astonishing second leg saw Barca beat the French side 6-1 at Camp Nou. Barcelona scored three times from the 88th minute onwards in one of the most memorable European games of all time.

However, Barcelona have also twice been on the wrong end of comebacks. In 2017-18 and 2018-19, Barcelona blew three-goal first-leg leads to AS Roma and Liverpool respectively.