Italian giants Juventus almost pulled off a stunning comeback from their 5-2 first leg deficit against Galatasaray, but extra-time goals from Victor Osimhen and Baris Yilmaz gave the Turks a 7-5 aggregate victory, while Lazar Samardzic’s injury-time spot-kick put Atalanta through 4-3 on aggregate against Borussia Dortmund.
Vinicius scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory on the night to secure a 3-1 aggregate success for Real in the play-off tie in Madrid.
A week on from the racism furore in the first leg in Lisbon, Vinicius provided the perfect riposte as the man he accused of racial abuse, Argentine midfielder Gianluca Prestianni sat out the match with a provisional ban imposed by Uefa.
Benfica coach Jose Mourinho was also suspended for the match against his former employers but his side briefly gave him hope of a shock result.
Rafa Silva gave Benfica a deserved lead on 14 minutes, tapping home the loose ball after Raul Asencio prodded Vangelis Pavlidis’s cross towards his own net, forcing Thibaut Courteois into an instinctive parry.
But two minutes later, Aurelien Tchouameni levelled things up on the night with a crisp finish from Federico Valverde’s cutback.
With strike-partner Kylian Mbappe injured, Vinicius had stolen the limelight, breaking clear 11 minutes from time to fire across goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin and into the far corner.
At the Parc des Princes, PSG overcame a first-half scare to beat Monaco 5-4 on aggregate after a 2-2 draw.
With Morocco full-back Achraf Hakimi picked to start despite facing trial for alleged rape, PSG made a sluggish opening.
Monaco pulled level on aggregate just before half-time as Maghnes Akliouche finished smartly from Mamadou Coulibaly’s clever pass after PSG goalkeeper Matvei Safonov flapped at a cross.
But Coulibaly picked up two yellow cards in quick succession early in the second half and almost immediately, Desire Doue teed up Marquinhos to finish from close range.
Six minutes later, Hakimi let fly from distance, Monaco goalkeeper Philipp Koehn parried, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia slammed home the rebound to all but crush the visitors’ hopes before Jordan Teze scored in injury time.
Meanwhile, ten-man Juventus’s hopes of pulling off a stunning comeback came up short despite beating Galatasaray 3-2 after extra time in Turin.
Goals from captain Manuel Locatelli, centre-back Federico Gatti and US midfielder Weston McKennie allowed Juve to force extra time despite Lloyd Kelly’s second-half dismissal with the score at 1-0.
But Osimhen and Yilmaz’s extra period goals sent the Turks through.
Juve were given a lifeline eight minutes from half-time when former Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira brought down Khephren Thuram in the box and Locatelli dispatched the spot-kick.
Juve had dominated the first period but their hopes of progressing took a huge blow when English centre-back Kelly was harshly dismissed early in the second half after catching Yilmaz with his studs as he jumped for a header.
Even so, Gatti turned home right-back Pierre Kalulu’s wicked cross and McKennie levelled up the tie eight minutes from time with a back-post header from barely a yard out to force extra time.
Serbian midfielder Samardzic’s last-gasp penalty earned Atalanta a 4-1 victory on the night at home to Dortmund.
Algerian centre-back Ramy Bensebaini gave away the penalty deep into time added on after catching Nikola Krstovic in the face with a high boot.
It earned him a second yellow card on a nightmare evening in which he inadvertently contributed to Atalanta’s first two goals as well.
The Italians had wiped out their 2-0 first leg deficit by half-time thanks to goals by striker Gianluca Scamacca and veteran wing-back Davide Zapacosta, both aided by Bensebaini deviations.
Croatian mdifelder Mario Palasic headed home from inside the six-yard box to give the Italians the aggregate lead but Karim Adeyemi’s brilliant individual goal had looked set to send the game into extra time. (AFP)
Edited by Cecil Wong
