Benfica traveled to Amsterdam for their second leg against their heavily favoured Dutch opponents and escaped Amsterdam with a 1-0 victory stunning the Dutch league leaders, many pundits around the globe and their fans, myself included. Benfica entered the game with a plan to sit back and defend hoping that the club would get an opportunity and be able to capitalize on it after a first leg draw at home.
They got that opportunity in the 77th minute of the game off a set piece as striker Darwin Nunez headed home the goal from an Alex Grimaldo cross, silencing a large home crowd minus their own traveling fans and sending the football world into a frenzy around the globe, it was Benfica's only shot on net in the entire game.
Benfica now advance to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the fifth time and their first since 2016 when they were knocked out by Bayern Munich. Benfica also pocket an additional €10.6M for reaching the final eight and have earned over €55M in the competition this season and will await to find out their opponents Friday from a remaining group of clubs that will be foaming at the mouth hoping to land the Portuguese side in the next round.
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