Vangelis Pavlidis scored one and assisted one to help Benfica secure their Champions League play-off place with a 2-0 win over Juventus. (More Sports News)
Juventus were also assured of a ﷽top-24 finish coming into the final game of the league phase, and coul꧂d not stifle their visitors, who had everything to play for.
Benfica s🌳tarted brightly, and it took just 16 minutes for Pavlidis to put them ahead with a cool finish. They could have doubled their lead on the stroke of♕ half-time too, but Mattia Perin denied the Greek striker with a fine Mattia Perin save.
Juventus pushed for an equaliser in the second half without causing their visitors any🌠 real problems, with Anatolli Trubin looking comfor🍌table as he denied Khephren Thuram and Douglas Luiz.
Against the run of play, Benfica finished off the job 10 minutes from time, with Orkun Kokcu netting with a low drive into the bottom-left corner before Kerem Akturkogluꦦ missed a chance to add some gloss to the scorelin🔯e last on as he fired wide.
The result saw Benfiꦏca leapfrog Juventus in the standings, moving up to 16th on𓆏 13 points, one point and four places above the Italian side.
Data Debrief: Pavlidis steals the show again
The forward made a bit of unwanted history last time out in Benfica's 5-4 defeat to Barcelona, becomin🌜g just the fifth player in Champions League history to finish on the losing side after scoring a hat-trick.
It was a much happier result this time around as he became just the second Greek player to score five goal❀s in a European Cup campaign, along with Antonis Antoniadis for Panathinaikos in 1970-71 (10 goals).
Benfica have now won three of their four Champions League away matches this season (L1), only the s🦋econd time they have won as many games on the road in one campaign, along with 2022-23.
While it was a disappointing finish to this stage of the competition, Juve have now progressed from nine of their last 10 Champions League group/league phases, with thꦜe exception coming in 2022-23.
