Benfica have reached the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign after seeing off a stiff challenge from Zenit
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Benfica have reached the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign after seeing off a stiff challenge from Zenit St Petersburg.
The Two-time European champions won the first leg 1-0 in Portugal and then cemented their place in the last eight of Europe’s top club competition with a 2-1 second leg victory in Russia.
Hulk levelled the last-16 tie for the hosts with a second-half header before Nicolas Gaitan put Benfica back in front on 85 minutes.
Anderson Talisca then sealed a 3-1 aggregate victory with the last kick of the game.
Joining Benfica in the quarter-finals are Paris Saint Germain who beat Chelsea 2-1 on the night in London for a 4-2 aggregate win.
PSG beat the ‘Blues’ 2-1 in Paris three weeks ago and got off to the best possible start at Stamford Bridge when Adrien Rabiot fired the French champions into the lead after just 16 minutes.
Diego Costa handed Carlo Anchelotti’s men a lifeline levelling matters on the night just nine minutes later.
But Chelsea’s hopes of making the last eight were blown away when the on-form Zlatan Ibrahimovic volleyed home a dangerous Angel Di Maria cross from close range to send PSG through at the expense of the Londoners for the second consecutive season.
PSG will now hope to break their Champions League-quarter final hodoo – they have been eliminated from this stage of the competition the past three campaigns.