After playing out a dramatic league phase finale that saw Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin score a dramatic stoppage-time goal, which allowed the Eagles to sneak into the knockout stages, and with Jose Mourinho coming up against his former side, Real Madrid, this game was always likely to have a bit of needle to it.
That wasn’t particularly evident in the opening stages, though, as a rather tentative clash was almost sparked into life by Kylian Mbappe, whose ferocious drive from the edge of the area was well stopped by Trubin.
The Benfica stopper had to be alert again soon after to deny Arda Guler, although a header at the other end from Tomas Araujo, which worked Thibaut Courtois, was a warning to Madrid that their hosts were still in the game.
The two sides traded blows throughout the first half, with Vinicius Junior trying his luck for the visitors, while Fredrik Aursnes wasted arguably Benfica’s best chance of the opening 45 minutes when his curling effort forced Courtois to deny him at full stretch.
Chances continued to rain in on the Benfica goal, with Vinicius and Mbappe both going close within seconds of each other before the break, but the record 15-time European champions went into the break on level terms and wondering if they’d be left to rue their missed opportunities.
The game's breakthrough came from what could only be described as a half-chance, as Vinicius did what he’d been threatening to do all evening. He jinked his way into the area from an inside left position, worked the ball onto his favoured right foot and curled home a sensational strike into the top corner, giving Trubin no chance.
The Brazilian was at the heart of controversy soon after, too, as he reported an incident, believed to be of a racial remark from a Benfica player, which prompted the halting of the game.
The contest resumed after a stoppage just shy of 10 minutes, and after his first goal made him the outright second-highest scoring Brazilian in the UCL with 31 goals, 32 almost followed when his deflected effort forced a smart reflex stop out of Trubin.
A red card to Mourinho perfectly encapsulated the farce the game had descended into, but with Benfica struggling to make anything happen in a footballing sense, their best hope looked to be something like the dramatic late winner they managed last month.
The closing minutes were marred by yet more ugly scenes with objects thrown from the crowd towards the Madrid players, but they took the ultimate prize in the form of a lead back to the Spanish capital for next week’s second leg, where they look well placed to build upon a record of 10 wins from their last 12 two-legged European ties.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)
