Benfica win thriller with Juventus to reach Champions League knockouts

LISBON: Benfica reached the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday after winning an exciting contest with Juventus 4-3 and sending the Italians out of the competition.

Antonio Silva’s early header, a Joao Mario penalty just before the half-hour mark and Rafa Silva’s classy brace kept Benfica second in Group H, eight points ahead of third-placed Juve with one game to play.

Roger Schmidt’s side are unbeaten in all competitions this season and can beat their group-stage points record of 12 with a win at bottom side Maccabi Haifa next week.

Benfica are level on 11 points with leaders Paris Saint-Germain and have a chance to top the group next week, although they would need Juve to get a result against the French champions in Turin after being dumped out at the group stage for the first time in nine years.

“We played brilliantly with and without the ball,” said Schmidt.

“We were playing against Juventus who are not an easy team to play against, but we believed in ourselves and played great football.”

Juve traveled to Lisbon knowing that only a win would give them any hope of making it through to the last 16, but although Moise Kean had them level in the 21st minute the away side never had the chance to claim the three points.

Another bad night for Juve was somewhat alleviated by the fight shown late on, with quickfire goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Weston McKennie, and a big push for the win in the final 15 minutes turning what looked like being a thumping into merely a painful elimination.

“We made things difficult for ourselves,” under-fire Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri told Sky in Italy.

“(But) our elimination was already decided before we played tonight’s match.”

The defeat will put more pressure on Allegri on a