Key events
40 min: Barreiro steals the ball off Tchouaméni in the centre circle, and suddenly Benfica are three on two! But the whistle goes for a very generous foul. Otamendi uses his captain’s privileges to discuss the matter with the referee, but the whistle’s gone, and that’s that.
39 min: Benfica certainly haven’t given up hope, though. Rios drives through a crowded box towards the bottom left, and Courtois does very well to get down and parry. Then soon after, the ever-dangerous Dedic jigs in from the right and makes space on the edge of the D to shoot … before slipping over. Real not secure at the back at all.
37 min: Dedic stands in yards of space on the right, waiting for a simple Araujo pass. It never comes. Araujo sticks up a hand in apology. A big chance to launch a dangerous attack goes by.
35 min: Rios is booked for catching Tchouaméni’s foot with a late lunge. More mistimed than anything of ill will.
NO GOAL. Real Madrid 1-1 Benfica (agg 2-1)
Yep, Gonzalo was offside when Valverde headed down. The blushes of Trubin and Otamendi, who both hesitated to let Guler steal in, are spared.
33 min: VAR is going to take a check. It’s tight.
GOAL! Real Madrid 2-1 Benfica (Guler 32); agg 3-1
Vinicius Jr dinks a cross in from the left. Valverde heads it back into the centre. Gonzalo can’t connect properly as he sweeps a leg towards the ball. Trubin hesitates, and Guler is on hand to sweep home for close range! But was Gonzalo offside?
30 min: Dedic has had the run of Benfica’s right flank, and now he wins a corner off Carreras. Schjelderup comes across to take. Tchouaméni eyebrows clear, and just as well, because Rios was steaming in behind him, neck wound back, preparing to head home from six yards.
28 min: Real with more of the sterile domination. Benfica will be pleased the hosts are resorting to this.
26 min: Real Madrid calm things down with some sterile midfield possession. Probably a wise move. Meanwhile here’s Justin Kavanagh: “So much space out there? Basketball game rhythms? Two goals in as many minutes? Hold on, aren’t one of these teams managed by that José Mourinho bloke? What’s going on here, Scott?” Time takes its toll on every man.
24 min: Real may possibly decide that the best form of defence is attack, and with this in mind, Camavinga creams a rising shot goalwards from distance. Easy enough for Trubin. Then another phase, as Vinicius sashays in from the left before driving harder down the middle. He fizzes a low shot towards the bottom right but that’s easy for the keeper. If this ends 1-1 on the night, things will have taken several strange turns.
22 min: Schjelderup races into a daft amount of space down the left. A low cross. Pavlidis tries to back-heel home at the near post. Had he missed the ball, Rafa Silva was tapping home again. But it’s deflected away from danger. Benfica keep on the front foot and Barreiro wins a corner on the right, but nothing comes of that. Real are a shambles at the back.
21 min: That equaliser has settled Real Madrid a little bit. They had been extremely skittish before Tchouaméni slotted so calmly. Now they’re seeing much more of the ball.
19 min: … and to illustrate that, Alexander-Arnold advances down the right and cuts back into a huge pocket of space. However one of the reason there’s so much space is because there’s no Real Madrid player in the box. What a start to this game, though!
18 min: Dedic romps down the right and looks for Rafa Silva in the middle. Camavinga is on hand to put a stop to the basketball rhythms of this game. For now. No way is this ending 1-1. There’s so much space out there.
GOAL! Real Madrid 1-1 Benfica (Tchouameni 16); agg 2-1
Real were all over the shop defensively there. But what a response this is! Valverde makes good ground down the right and cuts back for Tchouameni, who from the edge of the box steers a power-curler into the bottom right!
GOAL! Real Madrid 0-1 Benfica (Rafa Silva 14); agg 1-1
A simple ball round the corner down the right by Rios, and Pavlidis is released into acres. He crosses low. Raúl Asencio slides in to intercept, with Rafa Silva alone behind him. He diverts the ball towards his own goal. Courtois spares his blushes with a fine reaction save, but the ball rebounds to Rafa Silva, who knees home from a couple of yards.
12 min: Araújo launches long for Pavlidis, who holds up the ball on the edge of the box, drifts left, then looks for Rios in the middle. The cross is overhit. Goal kick.
11 min: Real Madrid pass it around the back, but not in a particularly domineering style. The hosts have been strangely subdued so far, that one burst into the box from Vini Jr apart.
9 min: Another touch for Vinicius. More whistles. The Benfica fans making their presence felt.
7 min: … Guler slipping a pass down the inside-left channel for Vinicius, who fires wide left under pressure from Otamendi. Vinicius claims a penalty, but the ball had long gone before any contact, and he’s never getting that decision.
6 min: It really is a defiant start. Schjelderup makes good down the left and rolls infield for Rafa Silva, who drops a shoulder to send Raul Ascencio off for a copy of Marca. He fires towards the bottom left. Courtois gathers. Real counter and launch their first attack …
4 min: Dedic is in the mood for this, it’s clear already. He drives in from the right, making a long diagonal run before feeding Schjelderup, whose attempted cross is deflected into the side netting. Nothing comes of the resulting corner, but this is a defiant start by Benfica.
2 min: From the restart, Vinícius Júnior takes his first touch of the evening. He’s given the bird by the Benfica fans. Loud whistling.
Photograph: Miguel Lemos/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
1 min: Dedic advances down the right and nearly gets past Carreras, who puts in a crunching tackle. It should be a corner, but the linesman reckons the ball pinged back off the Benfica man. Goal kick.
Real Madrid kick off. The Bernabéu is bouncing.
Here come the players. Real Madrid in meringue white, Benfica all red. Zadok (Version) rings out from the speakers. We’ll be off in a minute or two.
Anyway, over to the Bernabeu, Real Madrid and Benfica. Good luck following that.
Nicola Zalewski’s penalty was the very last kick of the game. The penultimate kick of the tie was by Ramy Bensebaini to Nikola Krstović’s forehead. Four kicks earlier, Gregor Kobel carelessly shipped possession by softly kicking in the direction of Mario Pašalić, who took a couple of touches down the left before crossing. And before Kobel’s why-didn’t-you-just-blooter-it-clear brain-fade came Marten de Roon’s long speculative punt. So which one actually was the decisive kick? Get your semantic and pedantic kicks here! What an end to the tie, though. Congratulations to Atalanta, who never fail to entertain on the European stage.
Some admin amid the mayhem: Nico Schlotterbeck was also sent off for Borussia Dortmund, just before the penalty was taken, presumably for telling it as he sees it. There’s something that will affect the start of BVB’s European campaign next season / his transfer fee should he join another Champions League club in the summer.
FULL TIME: Atalanta 4-1 Borussia Dortmund (agg 4-3). That’s the last kick of the game! Atalanta will face either Arsenal or Bayern Munich in the last 16!
GOAL! Atalanta 4-1 Borussia Dortmund (Samardžić pen 90+8); agg 4-3. Samardžić whips the penalty into the top right, and that is surely that! What drama here!
90 min +7: Nope! VAR brings the referee to the screen. And once he red-cards a person from both dugouts, he points at the spot and red-cards Bensebaini too. Penalty to win it coming up!
90 min +4: What drama here! Kobel races out of his area to deal with a loose ball. He only manages to pass it to Pašalić on the left! Pašalić advances down the left and loops a cross over the walkabout keeper. Krstović prepares to head home into the unguarded net, only for Bensebaini, facing the wrong way, to attempt to donkey-kick the ball clear! Which he does, at the expense of a corner, but also at the expense of Krstović’s head! Blood pours from it! What’s going to happen? That surely can’t be just a corner, can it?!
90 min: Sulemana rolls a long pass down the left for Bernasconi to chase. Bernasconi whips it along the corridor of uncertainty but nobody in blue and black has kept up with him. There will be three added minutes. Can anyone find a winner, or is this going to extra time?
88 min: Nmecha flicks a cute pass down the middle and nearly releases Adeyemi on goal … but Ahanor nips between them, just in time, to steal the ball away. Both teams living on the edge. Both playing on the front foot. Can they both go through? Please?
87 min: Guirassy and Hien tussle in the Atalanta box. Both fall over. Dortmund want a penalty but they’re not getting one simply for participating in a hard-but-fair wrestling bout.
85 min: Krstović one-twos with Zalewski down the middle … and he’s clear! But Kobel reads the danger and comes racing out of his box to blooter clear. The keeper takes a whack for his trouble, but Krstović was within his rights to compete for the ball with so much on the line. Great play all round.
82 min: Atalanta counter, and Samardžić dances his way in from the right, before lashing a low diagonal drive inches wide of the left-hand post. Kobel wasn’t getting to that.
81 min: Adeyemi advances down the right. He zigs where Atalanta zag. He fires a low cross through the six-yard box. Guirassy isn’t far from the ball … but far away enough to be unable to poke home.
79 min: A caveat to that stick-with-it promise. Should this game go to extra time, on account of my not having four hands, two pairs of eyes, and a dual-face system on the front of my skull, we’ll have to leave this game for the Real-Benfica match should it go to extra time. But I’ll try to keep tabs on it nonetheless. I promise you that. To be honest, extra time isn’t exactly nailed on, despite the aggregate score and amount of time left on the clock, because since Adeyemi’s goal, both teams have gone into NBA Mode. This could be a great end-to-end finish.
GOAL! Atalanta 3-1 Borussia Dortmund (Adeyemi 75); agg 3-3. Karim Adeyemi dribbles in from the right. A big gap in the Atalanta defence opens up, just inside the box. Adeyemi shifts the ball to his left before unleashing a power-curler into the top left! What a strike! I’m going to have to stick with this one now.
There’s something brewing in Bergamo. Atalanta started the second leg of their tie against Borussia Dortumund 2-0 down. But tonight this has happened …
5 min: Lorenzo Bernasconi crosses low from the left. Daniel Svensson should clear but air-kicks. Gianluca Scamacca taps home.
45 min: Another cross into the BVB box from the left. This time it’s a high one, and Gregor Kobel punches clear. But only to Davide Zappacosta, who whistles one in from the edge of the box, admittedly with the aid of a big deflection.
57 min: This one’s an absolute peach. Marten de Roon swings long from a deep position on the left. Mario Pašalić, running in at the far stick, nods home. He couldn’t miss from six yards. Such a sweet delivery.
… and they’re now leading 3-0 on the night, 3-2 on aggregate. There’s 20 minutes plus stoppages to go. Dortmund desperate to force extra time. Atalanta doing their level best to salvage some Serie A dignity after last night’s Internazionale debacle, and Juventus’s statistically likely knockout tonight.
Real Madrid make two changes from the XI named to start the first leg. Kylian Mbappé and Dean Huijsen are injured, so Gonzalo and Raúl Asencio step into the team. Rodrygo is suspended.
Benfica make one change from their starting line-up last week, and it’s that enforced one. Gianluca Prestianni’s place is taken by Richard Ríos.
The teams
Real Madrid: Courtois, Alexander-Arnold, Asencio, Rudiger, Carreras, Valverde, Guler, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Gonzalo Garcia, Vinicius Junior.
Subs: Lunin, Gonzalez, Carvajal, Alaba, Francisco Garcia, Diaz, Mendy, Mastantuono, Cestero, Angel, Palacios, Pitarch.
Benfica: Trubin, Dedic, Otamendi, Tomas Araujo, Dahl, Barreiro, Rios, Aursnes, Rafa Silva, Schjelderup, Pavlidis.
Subs: Soares, Ferreira, Antonio Silva, Barrenechea, Bah, Ivanovic, Sudakov, Lukebakio, Cabral, Manu, Neto, Anisio Cabral.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia)
VAR: Christian Dingert (Germany)
Gianluca Prestianni, the man whose actions instigated the storm last week at the Estádio da Luz, will be missing for Benfica tonight. The Argentine winger had been handed a provisional one-match ban after Vinicius Jr reported him for alleged racial abuse, pending the result of a full investigation, and today Uefa rejected Benfica’s appeal against his suspension for tonight’s match.
Meanwhile here’s some essential reading, courtesy of Samuel Okafor, chief executive of football’s anti‑discrimination organisation Kick It Out.
Preamble
When these two grand old clubs came out of the hat, one after the other, hot on the heels of the joyful drama of Anatoliy Trubin’s insta-legendary header, anticipation and excitement rocketed. Two more matches like that, please; imagine the fun we’ll all have! Then came last week’s throughly dispiriting imbroglio, and now … let’s just hope we get through the evening without anyone suffering unacceptable abuse while going about their daily business. It’s not much of an ask, and it’s painful to be required to set the bar so low, but here we are. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT.
