LISBON — Three weeks after losing 4-2 on a night that will be long remembered at Benfica, Real Madrid were back at the Estadio da Luz. But this wasn’t the same game, the same feeling or the same outcome.
This time, there was no last-gasp headed goal from a goalkeeper, and no celebratory tears from Benfica manager José Mourinho. Instead, Madrid take a deserved 1-0 lead back to the Bernabéu for next week’s playoff second leg.
On their return to Lisbon, this did not look like the same visiting team. “We saw a totally different Real Madrid,” coach Álvaro Arbeloa said afterward. On their side, there was less chaos and more control.
Madrid learned their lessons from the humbling defeat that dropped them out of the Champions League top eight and into these knockout round playoffs, and they came well prepared.
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But still, this was a night of extreme highs and lows. Nothing exemplified that more than Vinícius Júnior’s stunning 50th-minute goal and the 10-minute stoppage that followed it, when Vinícius accused Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him and the referee invoked UEFA’s anti-racism protocol.
The incident hung over the rest of the game, and the postmatch discussion. “This can’t happen,” Aurélien Tchouaméni said. Kylian Mbappé said Prestianni “did not deserve to play in the Champions League again.” Arbeloa said the team would have been willing to follow Vinicius off the pitch and abandon the game, if he had asked them to.
This time, Mourinho didn’t end the night hugging a ballboy in celebration. He ended it in the stands, disgruntled, having been shown a red card for protesting a referee’s decision late in the second half. After the match, he criticized Vinicius’ goal celebration. He was praised for his team’s performance on Jan. 28, when he masterminded a victory that ruthlessly exposed a brittle, naive Madrid and their weaknesses in defense and midfield. Now it was Arbeloa’s turn.
The Mourinho disciple learned from that experience, and set his team up accordingly. Here, Madrid lined up in a compact 4-4-2, with Eduardo Camavinga tasked with providing protection for fullback Álvaro Carreras on the left side, and Federico Valverde doing the same for Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right. If there was a sense that night in January that Madrid had badly underestimated Benfica, there was none of that here.
Before the game, Benfica did everything they could to create a feeling that lightning could, in fact, strike twice. As the stadium’s lights dimmed minutes before kickoff, a video shown on the giant screens began with Anatoliy Trubin’s 98th-minute header three weeks ago, and images of Mourinho’s tears.
A giant banner of an eagle, the club’s symbol, was unveiled along one side of the pitch, with just three words: “Until the end.” Trubin’s goal in the eighth minute of added time had seen Benfica qualify for the knockout rounds. They would need much more of that spirit if they were to overcome Madrid, the kings of Europe, over two playoff legs.
The home side started well, and the crowd was expectant and noisy. But as the first half went on, Madrid’s dominance grew. There were chances for Vinicius, Mbappé and Arda Güler, even if the first half’s standout moment was Thibaut Courtois’ full-stretch save from Fredrik Aursnes.
At the break, such was the momentum that it felt like a Madrid goal was a matter of time. When it came, the only surprise was just what a special goal it was, as Vinicius stepped in from the left wing and curled a shot over Trubin into the top corner.
Vinicius celebrated, dancing by the corner flag. The Brazilian has had a difficult season, his form inconsistent and talks over a new contract going nowhere. He has now scored in three consecutive appearances this month, and he has shown in big moments — here, and in his similarly breathtaking goal in the Supercopa de España against Barcelona — that he remains one of the world’s most decisive players.
And then with that goal, effectively, the game stopped. Not just for 10 minutes, but almost definitively. The match never found the same momentum, and much of the attention was, inevitably and rightly, on what had happened with Vinicius.
“Until the goal, it was a great game,” Mourinho said afterward. “After that, the game ended.” The former Madrid coach’s red card means that he won’t be on the bench at the Bernabéu next week.
Madrid will go into that game as favorites to progress to the last 16, their sense of superiority greater than Tuesday’s 1-0 scoreline would suggest. What Benfica did last month proved unrepeatable.
