Real Madrid overcame an early setback to defeat Benfica 2-1 on Wednesday, completing a 3-1 aggregate win and booking their place in the Champions League last 16 after an entertaining night at the Bernabéu.
Aurélien Tchouaméni and Vinícius Júnior scored on either side of half-time to overturn Rafa Silva’s early goal and send the 15-time European champions through, with either Manchester City or Sporting CP waiting in Friday’s draw.
Benfica, who arrived trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Portugal — a match overshadowed by Vinícius accusing Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni of making a racist remark — began confidently and cut through a makeshift Real defence missing Éder Militão and Dean Huijsen. Forward Kylian Mbappé was also absent due to a knee injury expected to rule him out for several matches.
Benfica coach José Mourinho was not on the touchline after being sent off in the first leg, while Prestianni did not feature after being provisionally suspended by UEFA following the Lisbon incident with Vinícius.
The visitors took the lead in the 14th minute amid confusion in the box. Thibaut Courtois made a superb left-footed save to stop Raúl Asencio from diverting Pavlidis’ cross into his own net, but the rebound fell kindly to Rafa Silva, who controlled the ball inside the six-yard area and fired home.
Real responded almost immediately. Two minutes later, Gonzalo combined neatly with Federico Valverde down the right, and the midfielder cut the ball back to the edge of the area where Tchouaméni steered a low shot just inside the right post.
With the tie finely balanced, the contest opened up. Arda Güler thought he had given Real the lead in the 32nd minute, only for VAR to rule out the goal for offside in the build-up.
Benfica continued to pose a threat, with Richard Ríos forcing an excellent save from Courtois in the 38th minute, though the hosts found more control after the interval.
Asencio headed narrowly wide from a corner and Trent Alexander-Arnold flashed a shot across goal, but Real almost paid the price for missed chances.
On the hour mark, Vinícius was caught in possession as Real tried to play out from the back, allowing Rafa Silva to unleash a powerful strike from the edge of the area that smashed against the crossbar.
The tension remained until the 80th minute, when Valverde intercepted a loose ball in midfield and slipped a perfectly weighted pass through to Vinícius. The Brazilian timed his run to beat the offside line, burst into the box and calmly finished into the bottom corner to seal the tie.
“We didn’t start the match well, but we stayed confident and believed the goals would come,” Tchouaméni told Movistar Plus.
“As the game went on, we improved and now we’ll keep pushing forward. We need to make some adjustments defensively and start games better, but we won — and that’s what matters most.”
