Sporting's three-goal <i>remontada</i> shows just how difficult it is | OneFootball

The Champions League round of 16 gave us some thrilling ties and the stage had been set for several teams to perform the unlikely three-goal comeback.

Premier League sides Chelsea, Manchester City, and Tottenham Hotspur all went in with three-goal deficits into the second legs to be played in England. However, none of them were able to stage comebacks and only Spurs were at least able to reduce the aggregate scoreline after a 3-2 win at home to Atlético de Madrid.

One team who did complete their comeback though was Portuguese side Sporting CP, who became only the fifth team to overcome a three-goal first-leg deficit in the Champions League era.

Neutral's favourite Bodø/Glimt had taken a commanding lead in the first leg in Norway with Sondre Brunstad Fet, Ole Didrik Blomberg, and Kasper Høgh all on target.

However, on a wet night in Lisbon, Bodø never got into the game and were under pressure the majority of the 90 minutes. Gonçalo Inácio gave Sporting home with his first half header before Pedro Gonçalves put Rui Borges' side within a goal of levelling with just over an hour gone.

The score was 3-3 on aggregate in the 78th minute when Colombian striker Luis Suárez converted a penalty for the kind of handball that is generally only seen in European competition and less likely to be awarded in the Premier League.

From that point on Sporting continued to push with Bodø still having no answer. Maximiliano Araújo then put the Lions 4-3 early in extra-time before Rafael Nel scored his first senior goal for the club to complete a famous comeback at the Estádio José Alvalade.

With that, Sporting became the fifth team to accomplish the three-goal 'remontada' or 'reviravolta' as they say in Portugal.

The first team to do that in the Champions League era of Europe's premier cup competition was Deportivo La Coruña who suffered a 4-1 defeat to AC Milan at the San Siro in the 2003/04 edition before storming back to win 5-4 on aggregate after a 4-0 win in Northern Spain.

No one did it again until it happened three seasons in a row. First the famous Barcelona comeback after being four goals behind Paris Saint-Germain in the 2016/17 season.

The following two years, Barça famously got a taste of their own medicine with AS Roma and then Liverpool overturning three-goal leads two successive seasons.

With four quarter-finals and two semi-finals remaining, perhaps this season's unpredictable Champions League could see it happen again. If the English teams had been better then perhaps it already would have.