Vangelis Pavlidis scored his sixth aim on this season’s Champions League to offer Benfica a 1-0 win away to 10-man Monaco within the first leg of their knockout section play-off tie on Wednesday. Pavlidis scored the one aim of the sport three minutes into the second half within the principality, with Monaco handicapped of their comeback makes an attempt as midfielder Moatasem al-Musrati was despatched off shortly after. Benfica, twice winners of the European Cup within the Nineteen Sixties, will now hope to complete the job within the return leg in Lisbon subsequent Tuesday, February 18.
The winners of this tie will face an enormous problem within the final 16 in opposition to both Liverpool or Barcelona.
Benfica, who’re presently second within the Portuguese league behind Lisbon rivals Sporting, have been hoping for a repeat of their victory in Monaco within the league section in late November.
They got here from behind twice to win 3-2 on that event, aided by the sending-off of Monaco defender Wilfried Singo early within the second half.
This time they went forward on 48 minutes, bringing the sport to life after a primary half of few probabilities on the Stade Louis II.
Pavlidis obtained goal-side of Mohammed Salisu to latch onto a cross in behind the house defence, earlier than coolly lifting the ball over goalkeeper Radoslaw Majecki to attain.
The Greek worldwide centre-forward has now discovered the online six instances in his crew’s final 5 Champions League outings, a run which features a hat-trick within the dramatic 5-4 loss to Barcelona final month.
That was the one aim of the sport, however Monaco had Libyan midfielder Al-Musrati harshly despatched off within the 52nd minute.
The new mortgage signing from Besiktas in Turkey gestured to the referee calling for a yellow card after his teammate Breel Embolo had been fouled.
However, Al-Musrati was himself cautioned, and having already been booked he was despatched for an early bathe.
Having began their Champions League marketing campaign with a win over Barcelona in September, Monaco have now suffered 4 defeats of their final 5 European outings.
They might want to get again to successful methods subsequent week, in any other case their hopes of reaching the final 16 will likely be dashed.
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