Vangelis Pavlidis scored one and helped one to help Benfica secure their play-off place from the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Juventus.
2024/2025 UEFA Champions League
0-2
- Vangelis Pavlidis (16 ')
- Orkun Kökçü (80 ')
Match report
Juventus was also assured of a top-24 finish that came in the last match of the competition phase and could not suppress their visitors who had everything to play for.
Benfica started fiercely and it took only 16 minutes for Pavlidis to pass a cool finish. They could also have double their lead during the break, but Mattia Perin denied the Greek striker with a fine Mattia Perin Save.
Juventus insisted on an equalizer in the second half without causing their visitors to cause any real problems, with Anatolli Trubet looking comfortable when he denied Khephren Thuram and Douglas Luiz.
Against the Run of Play Benfica closed the job for 10 minutes, with orkun Kokcu-network with a low ride to the top left corner before Kerem Akturkoglu missed a chance to add some shine to the score as the last while he shot wide.
In the result, Benfica Juventus jumped into the rankings, to 16th at 13 points, one point and four places above the Italian side.
We will continue to the 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚! #Ucl pic.twitter.com/xfdyu3u9kq
– SL Benfica (@slbenfica_en) January 29, 2025
Data Debrief: Pavlidis steals the show again
The attacker made a bit of unwanted history last time in Benfica's 5-4 defeat against Barcelona and only became the fifth player in the history of Champions League to finish on the losing side after scoring a hat trick.
This time it was a much happier result when he only became the second Greek player who scored five goals in a European Cup campaign, together with Antonis Antoniadis for Panathinaikos in 1970-71 (10 goals).
Benfica has now won three of their four Champions League matches this season (L1), only the second time they have won so many games in one campaign, together with 2022-23.
Although it was a disappointing finish of this phase of the competition, Juve is now advanced from nine of their last 10 Champions League Group/League phases, with the exception of 2022-23.
Line-ups
Juventus XI: Perin, Vlahovic, Douglas Luiz, McKennie, Timothy Weah, Khéphren Thuram, Francisco Conukição, Kalulu, Mbangula, Gatti, Yıldız
Subs: Pinsoglio, Locatelli, Koopmeiners, Di Gregorio, N. Gonzalez, Fagioli, Nicolò Savona, Rouhi, Adzic
Benfica XI: Di Maria, Otamendi, Fredrik Aurnes, Vangelis Pavlidis, Florentino, Alexander Bah, Orkun Kökçü, Anatoliy Truin, Tomás Araújo, Andreas Schjelderup, António Silva
Subs: J. Dear, Kerem Aktürkoğlu, Benjamín Rollheiser, Leandro Barreiro, Adrian Bajrami, Zeki Amdouni, Samuel Soares, Nuno Félix, Gianluca Prestianni, João Foneseca, Leandro Santos
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