Vinicius Junior scored as Los Blancos defeated Benfica 2-1 within the second play-off leg, serving to Actual Madrid advance to the final 16 of the Champions League.
Vinicius’ purpose within the first leg had already introduced Madrid degree, however the Brazilian scored once more within the eightieth minute to provide Alvaro Arbeloa’s facet a 3-1 mixture victory.
Nevertheless, the Estadio Bernabéu opened its doorways within the 14th minute when Vangelis Pavlidis’ cross was slid in direction of his personal purpose by Raul Asensio and, though Thibaut Courtois stopped the personal purpose, Rafa was readily available to squeeze within the rebound.
Benfica’s pleasure was short-lived, nevertheless, as Madrid hit again two minutes later with Aurelien Choameni curling Federico Valverde’s inviting cutback into the underside proper nook.
Coach Arda Güler seemed to have turned the sport over when he pulled previous Anatoly Trubin within the thirty second minute, however the purpose was dominated out for offside towards Gonzalo Garcia and his first shot was blocked by the away goalkeeper.
Benfica ahead Richard Ríos then neatly stopped Courtois at his close to put up earlier than half-time and Rafa hit the crossbar an hour later, however the first shot heading in the right direction of the second half sealed Madrid’s lead.
Vinicius obtained Valverde’s by way of ball, raced in direction of purpose and calmly fired a side-footed shot previous Trubin as Madrid held on for the 9 additional minutes added after Asensio was severely injured.
FT: @RealMadridEN 2-1 @slbenfica_en
14 minutes Rafa Silva
16 minutes @atchoameni
80 minutes @vinijr pic.twitter.com/O861d202jw— Actual Madrid CF (@realmadriden) February 25, 2026
Information report: Vinicius takes heart stage with one other European victory
It has been a troublesome week for Madrid and Vinicius each on and off the pitch, however they delivered one other particular efficiency right here within the Champions League.
Madrid have reached the final 16 in every of the 23 seasons for the reason that Champions League started in 2003-04, and are the one workforce to take action, led by their influential quantity seven.
In actual fact, Vinicius has scored in his final 5 aggressive appearances for Madrid (six targets), which is the same as his highest rating for the membership (additionally 5 targets in 5 video games from August to September 2022). He additionally scored the primary purpose for Madrid with each toes within the second spherical of the Champions League.
Nevertheless, with out the injured Kylian Mbappé of their squad, Madrid have been compelled to try for victory, with a complete anticipated targets (xG) of simply 1.11 from 14 for Benfica, in comparison with 1.98 from 12 for Benfica.
