Real Madrid recovered from an early scare to beat Benfica 2-1 on Wednesday, securing a 3-1 aggregate victory to reach the Champions League last 16 after a pulsating game at the Bernabeu. Aurelien Tchouameni and Vinicius Jr struck either side of half-time to cancel out Rafa Silva's opener, sending the record 15-time European champions through. Either Manchester City or Sporting Lisbon await in Friday's draw.
Benfica, trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Portugal—a match marred by Vinicius accusing Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni of directing a racist slur at him—started brightly and sliced through a makeshift Real defence missing Eder Militao and Dean Huijsen. Forward Kylian Mbappe was also absent due to a knee injury set to sideline him for multiple games. Benfica manager Jose Mourinho was absent after receiving a red card in the first leg, and Prestianni was provisionally suspended by Uefa following the incident with Vinicius.
The visitors went ahead in the 14th minute in chaotic fashion. Thibaut Courtois produced a stunning save to prevent Raul Asencio turning an own goal, but the rebound fell for Rafa Silva, who controlled the ball inside the six-yard box and fired past the keeper. Real responded swiftly; two minutes later, Gonzalo linked up with Federico Valverde, whose cutback found Tchouameni, who guided a low finish inside the right post. Arda Guler thought he had put Real ahead in the 32nd minute, but VAR ruled the goal out for offside.
The game remained finely poised until the 80th minute, when Valverde seized on a loose ball in midfield and threaded a precise pass to Vinicius, who timed his run to beat the offside trap, surged into the box and slotted a composed finish into the bottom corner. Earlier, Benfica had hit the crossbar through Rafa Silva. "We didn't start very well, but we remained confident and knew the goals would come eventually," Tchouameni told Movistar Plus. "We need to tweak our defence a little and get into the game better, but we won, and that's the most important thing."
