Benfica defeated Juventus 2-1 in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final at the Estadio da Luz on Thursday night.
Ezequiel Garay scored the opening goal of the match just two minutes in, but Carlos Tevez erased the advantage and grabbed the all important away goal for the Bianconeri in the 73rd minute. Lima broke the deadlock a little over 10 minutes later to give his team the victory.
The hosts got off to a quick start, taking advantage of a corner from Miralem Sulejmani, which was converted by Garay with a thunderous header than Gianluigi Buffon couldn’t handle.
Following the goal, Benfica continued to trouble Juve. Off a counter attack, Lazar Markovic played in a beautifully weighted through ball for Sulejmani, who sliced the ball wide of the near post.
Tevez tried to muster some momentum for the Bianconeri, but it rolled slowly into Artur Moraes’ gloves. Neither team created anything noteworthy for the rest of the first half.
After the restart, both sides fought for control with fouls flying left, right and centre. Juve nearly pulled level with Paul Pogba forcing a save out of Moraes with his header.
Controversy ensued when Martin Caceres appeared to hip check Enzo Perez, but referee Cuneyt Cakir was having none of it, despite the protests of Benfica players and fans. Replays showed that Perez ran straight into Caceres and possibly embellished.
Juve then dictated the tempo for the next few minutes as the Aguias couldn’t generate any shots on target. That paid off for The Old Lady as Tevez scored his first goal in European competition in five years off a Kwadwo Asamoah assist.
The Encarnados searched for a second goal late in the match and they found it through Lima, who fired the ball into the top of the net, leaving Buffon with no chance to save it.
Benfica almost scored a third shortly thereafter when Markovic sent a laser just past the far post. Claudio Marchisio returned the favour but Moraes came out quickly to prevent a clear shot.
The Portuguese champions managed to weather a late storm from the visitors to hold on to a 2-1 lead heading into the Juventus Stadium for the second leg.
