Vinicius Junior scored the winner on the night as Real Madrid beat Benfica 2-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday, progressing 3-1 on aggregate to the last 16.
It was the Brazilian forward’s superb goal which separated the teams in a first leg marred by an incident of alleged racial abuse aimed at him by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni, who denies it.
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Jose Mourinho’s side were still alive in the playoff round tie and took the lead early on at the Santiago Bernabeu through Rafa Silva, although Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni swiftly levelled.
Benfica gave the record 15-time champions a rough ride but fittingly Vinicius, who never hides from the spotlight, scored on 80 minutes to effectively end the contest.
“That is our Vinicius,” Tchouameni proudly told Movistar after the Brazilian’s winner.
“To be honest, we didn’t start the game very well but we kept our confidence,” added the French midfielder.
It was Portuguese coach Mourinho’s first time back at the Santiago Bernabeu since he coached Real Madrid from 2010-2013, but he could not lead his team from the dug-out because of suspension.
After a week dominated by the fallout from the first leg, Vinicius lined up for Real Madrid alongside Gonzalo Garcia, who stepped in for injured French superstar Kylian Mbappe.
“(Vini) had a great game,” Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa told Movistar. “Unbalancing them, scoring, creating a lot of danger every time he took them on.”
Benfica were without banned midfielder Prestianni, after an appeal against his provisional one-game sanction was turned down earlier on Wednesday, with UEFA still investigating the incident.
Madrid hung a large banner reading “no to racism” at one end, with the game played under the shadow of what happened last week in Lisbon.
There were boos for Vinicius from the visiting Benfica fans and he prodded wide in the early stages, appealing in vain for a penalty as Nicolas Otamendi collided with him after he got his shot away.
Benfica took a deserved lead in the 14th minute as Madrid defender Raul Asencio clumsily turned the ball towards his own goal.
Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois kept the ball out but Silva was on hand to bundle home from close range.
Stung into action, Madrid pulled level two minutes later through Tchouameni. The French midfielder finished with aplomb from the edge of the box from rampaging teammate Federico Valverde’s cross.
Madrid thought they had gone ahead on the night when Arda Guler stabbed home a loose ball after Garcia’s shot was blocked, but the Spanish striker had edged offside and it was disallowed after a VAR review.
– Vinicius settles it –
Courtois made a fine save from Richard Rios before the break, as Benfica turned up the pressure.
Silva hit the bar with a deflected effort before the hour mark as Mourinho’s side at times pinned back the hosts.
Madrid were dealt a setback as Asencio was forced off on a stretcher after colliding with Eduardo Camavinga.
It had to be Vinicius who settled the tie, though, and Valverde played him scuttling through on goal, with the Brazilian calmly rolling a low shot past goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin.
Vinicius produced another celebratory dance by the corner flag, as he had done in the first leg in the run-up to the flashpoint with Prestianni, and to the chagrin of Mourinho.
This time, the 25-year-old just had thousands of jubilant fans jumping up and down before him, and his goal confirmed Madrid’s passage to the last 16.
EXTRA TIME CARNAGE AS TURKISH HEAVYWEIGHTS ADVANCE
Galatasaray scraped through to the last 16 of the Champions League despite throwing away a three-goal aggregate lead at 10-man Juventus on Wednesday, with two extra-time goals limiting the Turkish outfit to a 3-2 defeat.
Victor Osimhen and Baris Yilmaz scored the extra-time goals which allowed Galatasaray to win a thrilling tie 7-5 on aggregate and set up a clash with either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the next round.
Galatasaray’s previous appearance in the last 16 of Europe’s elite club competition was in 2014 and they were fortunate to make it through on Wednesday, even with Juve having to play most of the night with 10 men.
Juve were leading on the night through Manuel Locatelli’s 37th-minute penalty when Lloyd Kelly was harshly shown a straight red card shortly after half-time for landing from a jump with his studs on Yilmaz’s Achilles heel.
Kelly could hardly believe his eyes when he was initially shown a second yellow crad.
But he was livid after a check on the pitchside monitor led referee Joao Pinheiro to revoke that decision only to show him a straight red card for serious foul play.
The English defender was filmed loudly proclaiming the decision “a disgrace” while Juve coach Luciano Spalletti looked on dumbstruck from the sidelines.
That decision looked to have killed Juve’s chances of mounting a comeback but Federico Gatti pulled another goal back with 20 minutes remaining and 12 minutes later, after Kenan Yildiz hit the post from close range, Weston McKennie headed the hosts level in the tie.
Edon Zhegrova had his head in his hands in the sixth minute of extra-time when he slapped well wide a glorious chance to complete the comeback, and Osimhen punished Juve by stroking home his best chance of the game.
Yilmaz ended Juve’s hopes of taking the tie to penalties with a goal which flattered Galatasaray, who splashed the cash last summer, including 75 million euros to take Osimhen from Juve’s Serie A rivals Napoli.
Gala’s vice-president Abdullah Kavukcu has been bullish in the last few days, saying that the club will sign Inter Milan midfielder and Turkey captain Hakan Calhanoglu.
But their performance on Wednesday was marked more by cynicism than quality, with Gala’s players doing their best to waste time and buy fouls in the style of Italian teams of old.
98th MINUTE PENALTY ELIMINATES GERMAN GIANTS
A stoppage-time Lazar Samardzic penalty gave Atalanta a 4-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, sending the Italian side into the last 16 of the Champions League 4-3 on aggregate.
Dortmund led 2-0 from the first leg but were on the back foot from the opening whistle, with Atalanta neutralising the visitors’ advantage by half-time thanks to goals from Gianluca Scamacca and Davide Zappacosta.
Mario Pasalic gave the hosts the lead in the tie but Karim Adeyemi’s solo effort dragged Dortmund level.
With the match set for extra time, Ramy Bensebaini was penalised for catching Nikola Krstovic in the face with a high boot in the box.
Referee Jose Sanchez duly pointed to the spot and handed Bensebaini a second yellow card.
Samardzic blasted home the penalty in the 98th minute with virtually the last kick of the match.
Atalanta’s former Arsenal defender Sead Kolasinac said he went through “a whirlwind of emotions” in the final seconds.
“When the referee decided for a penalty, I didn’t know who would take it. All our penalty takers had been substituted, but luckily Lazar converted brilliantly,” Kolasinac told DAZN.
Samardzic nails penalty to sink BVB | 00:32
Atalanta will meet either Premier League leaders Arsenal or German champions Bayern Munich in the last 16, with the draw to be held on Friday.
The victory and qualification continues Atalanta’s resurgence under Raffaele Palladino, who took over from the struggling Ivan Juric in November.
Under Palladino, Atalanta are unbeaten domestically in 10 matches in 2026. The victory also helped save the blushes of Italy’s Champions League sides in this season’s competition.
Inter Milan’s surprise elimination to Bodo/Glimt on Tuesday left Atalanta and Juventus, who host Galatasaray later on Wednesday trailing 5-2 from the first leg, as the only remaining Serie A sides in the competition.
Not since 1987-88 had a Serie A club failed to make it to the last 16 of the European Cup.
Floored by their earliest Champions League exit since 2021-22, 2024 finalists Dortmund will need to pick up the pieces quickly with Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich set to visit on Saturday.
Dortmund captain Emre Can told DAZN that his error-prone side deserved their elimination.
“If you make so many individual errors, it’s going to be difficult to progress… We were very unlucky, but to be honest we didn’t deserve to advance.”
Sam Kerr and Mary Fowler sit out session | 01:52
– Dortmund’s hopes “50-50” –
Despite their first-leg advantage, Dortmund coach Niko Kovac had said on Monday that his side’s chances of reaching the last 16 were “50-50” and promised not to sit back and defend their first-leg lead.
Visiting goalkeeper Gregor Kobel saved a Nicola Zalewski effort with four minutes gone but Atalanta broke through a minute later when Scamacca tucked home with ease from close range after Bensebaini’s failed clearance.
Dortmund were stung again just before half-time when Zappacosta’s speculative attempt took a heavy deflection off Bensebaini and went in.
With Dortmund’s first-leg lead eroded, Atalanta continued to turn the screw. Pasalic headed in a Marten de Roon cross early in the second half to grab the lead in the tie.
Substitute Adeyemi levelled the aggregate score when he curled in a superb effort from the edge of the box with 15 minutes left.
With extra-time beckoning, Bensebaini’s nightmare evening got even worse as he connected with Krstovic’s head late in stoppage time.
Despite him touching the ball first, VAR found the contact to be dangerous with the Algerian given his marching orders and Sanchez pointing to the spot.
Serbian midfielder Samardzic held his composure to slam home the penalty left-footed.
Bodo Glimt knock out UCL giants Inter | 01:13
REIGNING CHAMPION SURVIVE SCARE
Paris Saint-Germain came from behind and then survived a late scare against 10-man Monaco, drawing 2-2 in the second leg of their Champions League knockout phase playoff tie on Wednesday to reach the last 16 with a 5-4 aggregate victory.
The defending European champions came from two behind to win 3-2 in the principality in last week’s first leg, a game in which Monaco had a man sent off early in the second half.
The scenario this time was similar, with French international Maghnes Akliouche giving Monaco a deserved interval lead on the night to level the scores overall.
However, the visitors had Mamadou Coulibaly sent off on 58 minutes, and that proved the catalyst for PSG to make it 1-1 through Marquinhos before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia seemed to have clinched the aggregate triumph.
Jordan Teze did make it 2-2 in stoppage time, but PSG held on to progress to the next round.
Luis Enrique’s team will now find out on Friday their potential opponents all the way to the final in Budapest, with Barcelona and Chelsea their possible rivals in the last 16.
Paris beat Barcelona 2-1 away during the league phase in October and have faced the Catalans in five knockout ties since 2013. They played Chelsea in the final of the Club World Cup last year, losing 3-0 — their only blip in a remarkable campaign.
PSG were widely expected to get the better of their domestic rivals here — Monaco are currently eighth in Ligue 1, 20 points behind leaders PSG, although they did beat the Parisians in November.
The principality side had not won a Champions League knockout tie since their run to the semi-finals in 2017 with a side featuring a teenage Kylian Mbappe.
Here coach Sebastien Pocognoli set his side up in a 5-3-1-1 formation with Akliouche supporting central striker Folarin Balogun, the US national team star who scored twice last week.
Monaco, with just one victory on their last 10 trips to the Parc des Princes, may have felt the pressure was completely off them, and PSG were missing last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele with a calf injury.
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– Red card changes game –
Having been 2-0 up inside 18 minutes last week, Monaco really should have scored within 10 minutes here, but Coulibaly blazed over from an Akliouche cutback. They then came close again when a Balogun chip had to be tipped over by Matfei Safonov.
Bradley Barcola struck the bar for PSG but Monaco had been the better team and took a deserved lead just before the half-time whistle.
Safonov could only partially clear a cross into the home box and Monaco kept the pressure on as Caio Henrique returned the ball into the middle and Coulibaly laid it off for Akliouche to slot in.
The tie was now all square once again, but it swung back the way of the defending champions when Coulibaly was sent off just before the hour, leaving his team down to 10 men like in the first leg when Aleksandr Golovin saw red.
Having been booked just a few minutes earlier for a foul on Nuno Mendes, this time he was late into a challenge on Achraf Hakimi and a second yellow was produced by the Romanian referee.
PSG then scored from the resulting free-kick, which was played short to Desire Doue on the right and his low ball was turned in from close range by Marquinhos.
The momentum was now with PSG, and they took the lead on the night on 66 minutes as Hakimi’s powerful strike was only parried by goalkeeper Philipp Koehn, allowing Kvaratskhelia to convert the loose ball.
Monaco still came within a whisker of forcing extra time — substitute Teze turned in a deflected Simon Adingra centre in stoppage time to make it 2-2 and Wout Faes very nearly scored another.
Instead they go out at the playoff stage for the second season running, while PSG’s dream of retaining their title remains alive.