Vinícius Júnior sealed Real Madrid’s progress to the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday with the clincher against Benfica as holders Paris Saint-Germain edged out 10-man Ligue 1 rivals Monaco.
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.
“(Vini) had a great game,” Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa told Movistar.
“Unbalancing them, scoring, creating a lot of danger every time he took them on.”
READ ALSO: Celtic Out Of Europa League Despite Win At Stuttgart
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, 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 then stole the limelight, breaking clear 11 minutes from time to fire across goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin and into the far corner.
Tchouameni called it “a victory over racism”.
PSG overcame a first-half scare to beat Monaco 5-4 on aggregate after a 2-2 draw at the Parc des Princes.
“What we’ve shown this season is our resilience, our ability to solve problems,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said of his team.
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.
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.
AFP
