Benfica Beats Real Madrid: Champions League Upset!

What a crazy evening in Lisbon! Benfica achieved the feat of the last day of the group stage of the Champions League by beating Real Madrid at home (4-2). Better still, he sought an unexpected qualification after more than seven minutes of stoppage time on the last free kick victoriously headed by his goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin (90th + 8). A miracle which allows the Lisbon club to finish 24th team at the expense of Marseille while Real, who finished the game nine, will also have to go through the play-off box.

Seeing the buckets of water falling on the Stadio da Luz before the match, we would not have bet a bridge of gold on such fireworks. From this meeting, from which we expected little, came this bit of irrationality which means that we will not soon forget it. Despite their low chances of qualifying, Benfica never stopped believing in it and drowned a Real overwhelmed by this enthusiasm. Bellingham? Very discreet! Mastantuono? Transparent ! In truth, only Kylian Mbappé, author of a fine double (30th, 58th), held his place in Madrid’s disordered offensive system.

The match of a lifetime for Schjelderup

At least Benfica didn’t really steal their victory. If the Eagles took the lead at the very end of the first act on a penalty converted by the inevitable Vangélis Pavlidis (45th + 4), Gianluca Prestianni had before that found the bar (21st) and Andreas Schjelderup had eaten the sheet in a goal emptied of his goalkeeper (40th).

This Norwegian, let’s talk about him! Not the best known footballer from his region, vampirized by the giant Erling Haaland, but one of the two heroes of this evening. He certainly missed a goal but still scored two (36th, 54th) with a clean and precise finish.

The match of a lifetime, his own, in which he would have been the anonymous hero if his goalkeeper had not decided to steal the spotlight from him in this catastrophic end to the match for Real. But so beautiful for Benfica, proud 24th qualifier in this European field. So deserved, too, for this team capable of shooting more than twenty times on goal against this great one from Spain and rewarded at the last minute with this intense happiness of being able to set off again in search of a new feat in the play-off.