With the winning goal and another corner-flag dance, Vinícius Júnior fittingly had the final say in an emotionally charged rematch with Benfica to guide Real Madrid into the round of 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Defending champion Paris Saint-Germain also advanced out of the playoffs, while Atalanta completed a remarkable comeback with a last-second goal to maintain Italian involvement in the competition.
Playing a week after being the target of alleged racial abuse in the first leg against Benfica, Vinícius wrapped up Madrid’s 2-1 win over the Portuguese team — and a 3-1 victory on aggregate — with his team’s second goal in the 80th minute at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
The Brazil star celebrated his goal like he did last week, by dancing beside the corner flag.
Benfica opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Rafa Silva to briefly bring the score level at 1-1 on aggregate, only for Aurelien Tchouameni to equalize two minutes later.
PSG, which won the Champions League for the first time last season, also fell behind to Monaco but recovered to draw 2-2 and advance 5-4 on aggregate.
Atalanta substitute Lazar Samardzic converted a penalty with the last kick of the game against Borussia Dortmund in the eighth minute of stoppage time following a video review to seal a 4-1 win on the night and a 4-3 victory on aggregate.
Juventus was attempting an even bigger fightback. Trailing 5-2 from the first leg, Juve was 3-0 ahead at the end of regulation time to take the game to extra time.
Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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