Arturo Vidal gave Bayern Munich a slender 1-0 lead for their Champions League quarter-final return leg at Benfica next week, after hitting the winner just 109 seconds into Tuesday's first leg.
Bayern produced an off-key display at Munich's Allianz Arena and their fifth straight appearance in the Champions League semi-finals is far from assured.
"Benfica's back four stood up well and we missed out on that second goal," Bayern's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer told Sky.
"But despite all that, we can be very happy with the result, because we kept them to nil.
"That was the most important thing."
Rui Vitoria's Benfica can take plenty of heart before the second leg at the Estadio da Luz on Wednesday April 13, after subjecting Bayern to a frustrating second half in Munich.
However, the Portuguese league leaders will be without top-scorer Jonas after the 32-year-old picked up a second-half booking, his third of the tournament.
In the build-up, Bayern coach Pep Guardiola had described Benfica as having "perhaps the best back four" in Europe, after leaking just 19 goals in the Portuguese league this season.
But it took less then two minutes for Bayern to break the Benfica rearguard.
Franck Ribery crossed from the left and Juan Bernat, untroubled by the Benfica defenders, found Vidal in space to nod comfortably past Ederson.
Benfica failed to cope with Vidal's late runs from midfield as he again got on the end of a cross with half-time approaching, but the ball bounced harmlessly onto the roof of the net.
Having scored Bayern's winner with a spectacular bicycle kick last Saturday against Eintracht Frankfurt, Ribery tried the trick again, but without the same success.
Vidal took a painful blow for the Bayern team just before the break when he blocked a shot from Benfica captain Nicolas Gaitan with his nether regions.
But as the game wore on, Benfica's back four began to back up Guardiola's compliment by frustrating Bayern's attack, especially Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller.
Vitoria's men will be without their Brazilian hot-shot Jonas, who has scored 30 goals in the Portuguese league, for the return leg after a 58th-minute foul on Vidal.
In a bid to shut Benfica's attacking game down, Bayern coach Pep Guardiola switched Joshua Kimmich for Spain international Javi Martinez with an hour gone.
Bayern started to live dangerously.
There was pandemonium in the Bavarians' penalty area on 65 minutes when only desperate defending denied Jonas, who got off three shots.
With 20 minutes to go, both coaches threw on game changers as Guardiola introduced fleet-footed France winger Kingsley Coman, then Mario Goetze for the final five.
Vitoria brought on Mexico forward Raul Jimenez for Kostas Mitroglou.
Bayern have only themselves to blame for not doubling their tally in the dying stages.
Lewandowski got in behind the defence and drew Ederson, but his pass to an unmarked Philipp Lahm was too long, just a minute from the whistle. Via AFP.
Benfica will take that
Especially considering the vast majority of spectators thought they were set for a drubbing after falling a goal behind after only two minutes. They grew in stature in the first-half despite not offering much going forward, and despite over-relying on their influential 18-year-old midfield destroyer Renato Sanches to a quite ridiculous extent.
But in the second-half they went close on a couple of occasions, and their 32-year-old striker Jonas, who has scored no fewer than 30 goals in the league for them this season, should really have equalised after Almedia pick-pocketed Bernat deep in Bayern territory. But he missed, twice, and then promptly picked up a yellow card which will rules him out of the second-leg of this fixture, to be played next Wednesday.
But his night was still substantially better than Robert Lewandowski's. Anonymous throughout the first-half, Bayern fans were left wishing that he had gone similarly AWOL for the second. Instead he spurned two good close-range chances, as well as over-hitting a routine pass for his captain Philipp Lahm. If he had got that pass right, Lahm would have certainly scored, and Bayern would almost certainly be through.
But still, that means we're in business for the second leg! Make sure you join us for that, and make sure you stick around here for stats and a full match report.
90 mins +
Bayern are happy to see this one out, and Neuer kills a few seconds picking out his long ball forward. Lewandowski, oh poor Lewandowski, is promptly mugged, but Sanches can’t keep the ball under control and Bayern have it back. More, they have a free-kick when Jardel bundles over Coman.
There's to be five minutes of additional time.
88 mins
Have a word, Robert Lewandowski. Vidal plays an utterly superb diagonal pass directly though Benfica’s defence, and the striker is through. He could take it round the corner, he could slot it past him, but instead he opts to lay the ball off to Lahm, who should convert with the simplest of tap-ins.
Except Lewandowski over-hits it, and the ball spins past Lahm. That should really have killed the tie off.
86 mins
Bayern bring it out from the back, and Benfica’s midfield retreats rather than stand up to Lahm, who gleefully scampers forward with the ball. He lures in Gaitan, and then slips in a perfectly weighted pass to Coman. The winger takes the pass at pace and brings the ball forward in line with the penalty spot, only to dramatically backheel, which shakes off the attentions of Eliseu.
He has enough time to look up and pick his pass, but is quite possibly caught between two minds, with Lewandowski at the back post, and Ribery in space just behind him. He rifles the ball between the two of them, and the attack flat-lines.
84 mins
Just like that, Muller bursts into space! Benfica were still reorganising after that sub and Muller pounced, bursting into the left-hand channel. His first shot was blocked, and he then picked out Coman, but Gaitan is on hand to clear for the corner.
Ribery to take (and Benfica are a man down after Lindelof is forced to go off for treatment), but Lewandowski makes a right old mess of his chance, and heads over.
Guardiola makes a change, but the Pole stays on. Gotze replaces Muller, who has also been poor.
81 mins
Benfica still bossing. Bayern still struggling to find their groove. They’re desperate to give Coman the ball down the right, but he’s still struggling to make an impact. So instead Thiago looks left to Ribery, with the experienced forward showing his younger compatriot how it’s done by skipping past a couple of tackles down the left and shooting at goal from an acute angle. Ederson pushes the ball away, but that run has raised spirits a little bit.
But the Bayern cheers immediately turn to jeers when Lewandowski is caught inexplicably offside as Munich attempt to resuscitate the attack. That just about sums up his night. Benfica take advantage of the break to replace Jonas with Salvio.
76 mins
Pep Guardiola has just shouted himself hoarse on the touchline and Bayern respond with some customary high-pressing but – crucially – Benfica retain possession, despite the increase effort from their opponents.
Coman has been stationed out wide on the right, meaning the quickest player in the Bundesliga is being marked by 32-year-old Eliseu, but despite this seeming mis-match, Bayern can’t play him into possession.
73 mins
Well Benfica were threatening to come into this game a little bit more at half-time, but I don’t think that many people thought they would have hauled themselves back into this contest quite in this fashion. Bayern are at sixes and sevens, and Benfica have a free-kick in a very good position when Vidal mis-times a slide tackle on Jonas.
Around thirty-five yards out, slightly to the right. If Benfica had Payet on their books they’d be level by now. But they don’t, although Gaitan’s low cross almost meets Linndelof at the back stick. His despairing lunge is ill-timed however, and Bayern menacingly swamp forward, where a spot of football tennis ensues over the Benfica box. Eliseu brings the shenanigans to an end with an overhead clearance.
65 mins
Where to begin?! Bernat misses his header deep down the left and Almedia mugs him, flitting away to the touchline before smacking the ball into the Bayern box. It’s a low, flat cross, and Jonas bursts into the box to meet it, belting in a volley from ten yards out. But again his accuracy is woeful! Into the chest of Martinez it flies.
Once again Benfica half-heartedly appeal for a penalty, with Jonas slashing the rebound high and wide when he should have done much, much better. How has this fella scored 30 league goals? Munich have been uncharacteristically sloppy for the past couple of minutes; how does Guardiola respond?
63 mins
Finally Lewandowski makes some sort of impression. Bayern boot clear and Lindelof collects possession in his own half, but he dawdles, and Lewandowski simply leans in and muscles him off of the ball. No pace required, that was raw strength. With Ribery making a darting run down the flank, the defender has little option but to haul Lewandowski to the turf. Yellow.
57 mins
CUSTOMARY NEUER HEART-IN-MOUTH MOMENT #1: 56 mins. The ball is passes back to him by Kimmich and he almost takes a touch too many, but shifts his balance at just the right moment, clearing before Jonas can embarrass him.
He took on a little too much there, though, and Bayern are suddenly under pressure. Renato – of course – is the man on the scene, and he lifts the ball into the path of Jonas who shoots on goal from the outside of Bayern’s six-yard box. It’s an acute angle but his strike is far too close to Neuer for a man in the hunt for Europe’s golden boot, and the keeper is able to get his body behind the ball.
54 mins
Costa in possession now down the right. Nothing’s doing for him, so he spins back and passes to Lahm, and Bayern shift the ball around the back a bit, before Thiago feeds Ribery into some space down the left. He skips down the wing only to cut back inside, and Thiago almost loses possession when he stumbles over the ball, but he wins the 50/50 and passes back, and we go again.
Benfica look awfully susceptible to diagonal passes whenever Renato Sanches isn’t in the picture. The ball is moved out of his way by Lahm and we’re back with Costa, who decides to bring the tiki-taka phase to an end by absolutely leathering the ball in at goal. It smacks Jardel dead in the face, and he’s promptly on the floor and rolling around. Can’t say I really blame him, Costa struck that as hard as he could and it travelled for about six yards before practically knocking the poor defender over.
51 mins
Wow, for the first time this game Renato has been shaken off the ball, after losing his footing slightly as he attempted to spin away into Bayern’s half. Costa seizes on his mistake and the ball is played across goal where Lewandowski is waiting, but the Pole spurns a gilt-edged chance! Under-pressure, his shot was too close to Ederson, and the keeper is able to make a smart stop. Turns out Lewandowski was offside anyway, but he should have buried that.
Dare I say that it’s not his night?
48 mins
That said, Xabi Alonso is warming-up already.
Benfica have started this half in a far more aggressive fashion, and Alaba is immediately placed under pressure by an onrushing Jonas. He manages to hook the ball clear, and Thiago makes sure the Germans retain possession. They eventually opt for the lesser-spotted long ball into the box, but Muller is thrown off the ball by Jardel.
Seconds later, the ball is spooned back into the box in the direction of Lewandowski, but Lindelof does superbly to come across the striker and poke the ball out of play. Ribery swings in an inviting corner for Vidal, but Vidal is no Ribery, and his volley on the turn – from the edge of the box no less – is hacked across the face of goal and cleared.
Barca v Atletico
What's happening in the other Champions League quarter-final, you ask? I'm not going to tell you. But you can find out here!
Half-time: Bayern Munich 1-0 Benfica
Well that offers a little bit of hope for the second-half! In their first two minutes of competitive football after being dubbed “the best defence in football” by Pep Guardiola, Benfica went 1-0 down, but despite that early set-back they’ve managed to weather the storm, and have slowly grown into this half.
Thiago has been very good in flashes, and Ribery has been a constant nuisance on the left, but Bayern could find their raids down the left-hand flank stymied just a little by Bernat’s booking. Renato Sanches has meanwhile been very good for Benfica, and if the visitors can get him on the ball in Bayern’s half a little in the second period, as opposed to just expecting him to win the ball back in their own, they could pinch that all-important away-goal.
45 mins +
Yup, but we have a moment of drama first! From the free-kick Pizzi swings the ball in, where it clips of a Bayern defender and goes out for a throw-on.
Eliseu takes it, and the ball is clipped over to a waiting Mitrogleu on the right hand side of the box, who tries to ape Ribery with a dramtic volley attempt of his own. The only problem being that he’s an on-loan Fulham player, so somewhat predictably he ballses it up, with his shanked effort spinning unpredictably back across the box. It falls nicely to Gaitan – sitting up and just begging to be driven in at goal – and the winger strikes it well but directly into a Bayern defender, before it’s finally hacked away.
44 mins
A few moments ago he was breaking up an attack on the left hand side of the pitch, and now he’s quelling the Bayern threat over on the right. Renato does very well to stop Costa from taking the ball around him on the flank, and even wins possession when a frustrated Costa has a visible ‘Ah sod this’ moment and bundles him over.
Renato loudly – and dramatically—screams en route to hobbling off for treatment, and that should take us to half-time.
41 mins
It’s everybody’s favourite time of night: handbags! First Renato breaks up a Bayern Munich counter-counter (?) attack by crunching into Muller with a firm – but fair – tackle. Regardless, the Bayern fans take umbrage, and temperatures are raised yet further when Bernat responds to being nutmegged by Pizzi by simply wrestling him to the turf.
Suddenly everybody is running to the scene of the crime, but temperatures are cooled somewhat when Bernat is booked, and when Benfica instantly waste the free-kick.
37 mins
Benfica haven’t been poor – and they’ve just enjoyed another short spell of possession, orchestrated by the growingly influential Renato – but they’re finding it impossibly difficult to take the ball out of their own half. Ederson eventually decides to rectify this simply by booting the ball as hard as he can down the other end of the pitch, which almost works. Gaitan collects the ball after Lahm is pickpocketed and shapes to shoot, but is instantly crowded out.
Bayern then have a chance to break, and Costa does superbly well down the right, nudging the ball around Eliseu with ease, before swinging the ball into the path of Ribery. He’s overhit it slighty, and so Ribery decides to opt for the audacious. He leans back and goes for the scissor kick, but sadly doesn’t get the required connection, and Benfica counter.
34 mins
OH MY WORD. We just came so close to one of the sexiest free-kick goals ever there. Bayern win a free-kick when Fejsa bundles Ribery to the floor to the left of the Benfica D, and the Frenchman stands over the ball in a menacing manner.
But instead Thiago opts to scoop the ball directly over the Benfica wall. Muller of course knows what to expect, peeling off the left-hand side of the wall and readying himself to smash the volley goalward. But, once again, Ederson deserves an awful lot of credit for reading the move, and dashing off of his line in enough time to clear the danger. Good work. But in the grand scheme of things he’s a heartless villain, because he’s robbed us of one of the craftiest goals in Champions League history.
Literally.
30 mins
Finally Benfica have the smallest sniff of a chance! Renato does very well in the middle to hook a pass to Gaitan out on the wing, and he sprints into the box before attempting to chip it back into the path of an onrushing Jonas. Lahm slides in to intercept the pass, and Benfica appeal for a handball!
The ball did appear to glance off of the Bayern captain’s hand as he slid in, but there is no way it can be claimed that he meant to handball it. It was a poor cross from Gaitan who overran it somewhat, and a good chance goes begging.
27 mins
Tick-tock, tick-tock. Bayern are back in possession and calmly passing the ball around. Benfica have brought every single one of their players back into their own half, a tactic which invites pressure, but one which helps them to shepherd Muller out of play on the right with the German seeking to thread a ball through to Lewandowski up front.
Benfica haven’t offered very much, but at least they have been able to keep that particular duo quiet.
The Portuguese champions then enjoy their first real sustained period of possession, which ends when Pizzi passes to Almeida out wide on the right, with the full-backs poor low cross comfortably cleared.
23 mins
Vidal is booked after rather cynically hauling down Almeida in the middle of the pitch. Benfica take the free-kick quickly, and soon Pizzi is breaking into the Bayern box. He whips in a low ball across the face of goal, and Vidal does well to stick out a leg and deflect the ball for a corner. Brief moment of hope for Benfica, but Neuer is commandingly off his line to punch the ball away from the danger zone.
20 mins
Twenty minutes gone and I’m afraid to say Benfica have offered absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. Fortunately for them, Bayern – as good as they have been – haven’t quite hit top gear.
But hang on: Ribery passes to Thiago who chips the ball over the Benfica defence with total precision, where Muller is waiting to volley at goal on the right hand side of the box. He gets a good connection, but Ederson stands up to the shot well. Good save.
Renato tries to break, but is ran off the pitch down the left-hand flank. He’s been busy in the middle for Benfica, but has produced precious little quality in the opening period of this match.
17 mins
Ribery and Bernat combine well down the left. Bernat taks charge of the attack, and neglects to cross the ball early, instead springing back towards his own goal from a deep position and rounding the attentions of Almedia. He passes to Muller, who shapes to shoot before slipping Costa into possession on the right wing.
Superb first touch from Costa, who only has one thing on his mind: whip in the low pass for Lewandowski, who has been anonymous thus far. He succeeds in his aim, and the Pole is close to doubling Bayern’s advantage, but once again Ederson is quick off his line to stem the danger. He gets a boot in the paw for his troubles, and the game is paused for a few moments so that he can receive treatment.
13 mins
Unlucky for Benfica left-back Eliseu: the ball is whipped in to Muller and although it evades the German, the ball just about touches the defender’s chest and goes out for a corner. Fortunately for the visitors, a commanding Ederson sprints off his line to pluck the ball out of the air. Benfica then patiently bring the ball forward, and Almedia thinks that he’s won himself a corner out wide on the right, but the lino is having none of it.
Little matter: Neuer looks to start one of Bayern’s customary probing attacks from the back, but Benfica press the ball for the first time this match, and reclaim possession after Alaba is forced into playing a long-pass forward. Benfica have been far too respectful so far this evening, but that is a little bit more encouraging.
Oh hang on, they’ve lost the ball again.
10 mins
Close! Costa drifts in from the right and shoots from the edge of the box, but his low shot – struck as well as it is – is comfortably saved down low by Ederson.
Moments later, Bernat screws a low ball to the winger hoping to find him in some space down the right, but he’s unable to bring the ball under control.
8 mins
Bayern have really mixed it up so far this evening. Lahm – usually given such thrilling licence to roam – has stayed largely in position so far tonight, with Costa tucked in to the right of him, in a fairly narrow set-up down that flank. Instead the ball is going left at every opportunity, where Ribery and Bernat are currently wreaking havoc. Guardiola has really set his team up to go direct through the French winger, and Benfica are struggling at present.
Renato manages to stem one attack but Pizzi, whom he offloads to, passes it directly out of play. Again Bayern go left, but Ribery turns his nose up for a change and offloads to Bernat. Right we go, with Lahm finally brought into the attack, but Vidal loses out to Almeida.
5 mins
First sign of Renato. He wins the ball in the middle before feeding Jonas into some space, but the prolific old-man striker runs into a cul-de-sac and the ball is cleared.
Ribery – again – picks it up, and enjoys a stepover or seven down the left before his low cross is hacked clear for a corner. It’s taken short in the continental way, but Pizzi doesn’t shirk on his defensive duties, and is on hand to stick a boot in.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-0 Benfica (Vidal '2)
Here we go.
Interesting to see Costa out wide on the right. His first meaningful action of the game is to swing a gorgeous deep ball into the path of Ribery, who is standing completely unmarked out on the left. He has time to wave to the crowd, blow a kiss to his marker and send a text to his Mum before bringing the ball down with ease, Benfica’s defence nowhere to be seen. He lays it off to Bernat who darts into yet more space, before the full-back pings a cross into the box.
Vidal runs into the box. Heads the ball. Goal. Easy as that, honestly. Benfica are a goal down within two minutes.
And Bayern already have the ball back.
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