The last year has been the year of the comebacks. When in history have we seen seen so many in the biggest moments and in the biggest sports?

There’s the Golden State Warriors’ 3-1 collapse in last year’s NBA finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, you have the Cleveland Indians blowing a 3-1 lead in the World Series to the Chicago Cubs, and then there are the Atlanta Falcons, who lost a 28-3 third-quarter lead and fell in the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots just last month.

But Wednesday’s takes the cake. Barcelona was down 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain after the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 clash and needed to win 4-0 just to force extra time or win by five to advance. And they did it, winning 6-1.

To put into perspective, here is the comparison to the other three sports mentioned. But remember, Barca scored three goals after the 87th minute.

NFL: Imagine the Patriots needed 21 points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter to come back. Two touchdowns, two two-point conversions and a field goal wouldn’t have cut it, and that would have probably been impossible in five minutes, even for Tom Brady. Hey, maybe this had something to do with Rob Gronkowski visiting Barca last week.

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MLB: This is Red Sox-Yankees 2004 stuff we are talking here. The impossible becoming reality. At that point, no team had ever come back from 3-0 down to win a series. Entering Wednesday, no team had come back from 4-0 down in the knockout stages to win. This is the most comparable.

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NBA: Has an NBA team ever come back from 3-0 down in a series to win? No. This is even bigger than the Cavs’ comeback. Sure, that was in the finals, but being down 4-0 after one game and scoring six like Barca did? It was pretty much mission impossible, especially when you think Barca had three goals at the very end of the game. Imagine the Cavs being down 3-0 and doing it. To take it to the college hoops ranks, this was miracle-minute-like just on the soccer pitch.

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What a time to be a sports fan. If this last year has taught us anything, nothing is ever over until time is up.



No lead is too big, and sports never cease to amaze.