Benfica’s Jonas Oliveira celebrates after scoring the late winner
Jonas scored in added time to give Benfica a dramatic 1-0 win over 10-man Zenit St. Petersburg in the Champions League yesterday, heading home a free kick awarded after Domenico Criscito was shown a red card for the visitors.
Brazilian striker Jonas, Benfica’s and the Portuguese league’s top scorer, netted for the 26th time this season with a glancing header from a free kick in 91st minute.
That was awarded after Criscito picked up his second yellow card of the game for a foul on Andre Almeida.
Neither team really shone in the first leg, last 16 game at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon, though the win spared Benfica what looked likely to be a goalless draw and a tough time in Russia.
Zenit, despite not playing an official game since December due to its domestic league’s winter layoff, produced a confident performance to keep Benfica at bay for 90 minutes.
Zenit’s Portuguese coach Andre Villas-Boas rued what he saw as a missed chance to return to Russia with a blank scoresheet. “We’ll need to create more chances than today,” he said. “We held on well … We weren’t as good in the second half.”
“It was a fair result,” Benfica coach Rui Vitoria said. “We wanted a bigger win, but we didn’t concede a goal and that’s important.”
Benfica is looking to advance from the last 16 for the first time in four years, while Zenit is pursuing its first quarterfinal appearance.
Benfica had most of the possession but Argentine playmaker Nicolas Gaitan’s neat footwork went nowhere against the visitor’s composed defense.
With Hulk tightly marked, Zenit turned to Danny’s pace to try and break through, without success.
Benfica looked dangerous in the 18th as Almeida broke down the right but when he turned the ball inside, Pizzi hesitated before attempting a weak chip over goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin.
At the other end, Axel Witsel produced a low shot in the 52nd shot that forced Benfica keeper Julio Cesar to dive quickly down to his right.
With 20 minutes to go, Gaitan beat two defenders before blasting the ball against Lodygin from short range.
Just as the match looked destined to finish in deadlock, Jonas rose to give Benfica a valuable lead for the second leg in three weeks’ time.
In the night’s other match, struggling striker Edinson Cavani came off the bench to score the winner as Paris Saint-Germain beat Chelsea 2-1 in a pulsating first leg in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Cavani, who has lost his place in the side in recent weeks, latched onto a superb pass over Chelsea’s stretched defense from winger Angel Di Maria and slotted through the legs of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois from a narrow angle in the 78th minute.
“I’m happy for Eddy. I’ve said it often, because people doubt his scoring abilities, but he’s always shown he can score goals,” PSG coach Laurent Blanc said. “He was going through a very difficult period and I hope that scoring this goal gives him his confidence back.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic put PSG ahead with a powerful free-kick in the 39th minute, only for Chelsea to level on the stroke of halftime with a rare goal from midfielder John Obi Mikel.
Courtois made a string of saves to keep Chelsea in contention heading into the second leg, and Spanish winger Pedro almost spoiled the home celebrations in injury time with a rasping drive into the side netting.
“This is a very strong PSG, so I think the performance of our players was very good,” Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink said. “But we could have been more lethal in the four or five counters that we made.”
PSG is unbeaten in domestic competition since March and in all competitions since a 1-0 reverse away to Real Madrid in the group stage on Nov. 3 — a run of 23 games.
Still, Blanc’s side could regret a host of missed chances and Chelsea will fancy its chances at Stamford Bridge in three weeks’ time.
“It’s up to us to go and score at Stamford Bridge, we will get chances and we must take them,” Blanc said. AP
PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates with PSG’s Maxwell after his opening goal during the Champions League round of 16
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