Benfica beat Borussia Dortmund 1-0 at home in the first leg of their Champions League knockout tie Tuesday. Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should have had a hat trick. Instead, he was subbed off, goalless, in the 62nd minute for Andre Schurrle.
Benfica were not the better team in this match, but they made the most of their only shot on target, which is less than I can say for Dortmund.
Watch the highlights here, they are basically all about how bad Aubameyang was. He hit two sitters over the bar, couldn't get to a tap-in in time and hit a penalty straight at the goalie. It looked like my guy was match-fixing out there. Safe to say Real Madrid were not impressed with that performance.
Christian Pulisic nearly equalized for Dortmund late on with a volley from a corner, but Benfica goalkeeper Ederson was absolutely on fire. So was central defender Luisao. It's really hard to overstate how good those two were, Ederson for standing tall on corners (Dortmund had 10) and Luisao for snuffing out the through balls Dortmund kept trying to play. Even with those two playing at such a high level, Benfica should have lost. Such is life.
Yeah, Borussia Dortmund will probably still go through. Their home-field advantage is better than anyone's (the Yellow Wall is not to be trifled with), and Benfica can't count on Ederson and Luisao having the games of their lives AGAIN while Aubameyang having the opposite, but goddang that was fun.
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