Benfica Lisbon and Paris Saint-Germain are in the round of 16 of the Champions League. The Portuguese won gloriously 4-3 at home against Juventus Turin. PSG gave away a gala performance against Maccabi Haifa: 7:2.

Star attackers Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe were on the run for the French team. They accounted for five of the seven hits. Benfica made things exciting against Juve, the highlight of the game came from Rafa Silva’s foot, processing a Joao Mario cross behind his supporting leg.

The group winner will be announced on the last matchday. PSG and Benfica both have 11 points from five games. Juventus and Maccabi Haifa both have three points left. They have to decide who will be allowed to play in the Europa League after the winter. In round six, Benfica plays Maccabi, while PSG visit Juventus.

Messi, Mbappe and Secko

At PSG, Lionel Messi opened the scoring by firing the ball into the corner with the outside of his left foot. Mbappe, who served Messi on the first goal, then scored the second. After a poor finish at Maccabi Haifa, he rolled the ball into the far top corner.

The third star player, Neymar, could not be left behind. After a pass from Messi, the Brazilian made it 3-0 after 35 minutes.

Messi then also scored his second goal of the night, as did Kylian Mbappe. They weren’t the only ones with two hits. Abdoulaye Seck scored twice for Maccabi. He signed for the 3-1 and the 4-2.

Neymar was responsible for the 6-2 but didn’t get that goal behind his name. Shon Goldberg shot the Brazilian’s cross into his own goal. Carlos Soler made seventh place for PSG.

Benfica belittled Juventus for almost the whole game. Coach Roger Schmidt’s team had to accept the equaliser. Moise Kean made it 1-1 after a header from Antonio Silva. But after a penalty from Joao Mario and two fine goals from Rafa Silva, the Italian resistance seemed broken.

Benfica couldn’t get any further and almost got the cap on their noses. Fifteen minutes before the end, ex-Ajax player Arek Milik did something in return for Juve, he completed the ball hard into the bottom corner: 4:2. When Weston McKennie also made it 4-3 ten minutes from time, things got very exciting in Lisbon.

Especially because Rafa Silva shot the post just before the end and Juventus suddenly regained confidence. In the end, the Portuguese got the win. Former PSV coach Schmidt has gone twenty games unbeaten in all competitions with Benfica since arriving.

RB Leipzig has qualified in Group F for the round of 16 of the Champions League. They won 3-2 at home against already seeded Real Madrid.

Leipzig quickly took the lead. Josko Gvardiol headed in a ball after thirteen minutes that Real keeper Thibaut Courtois had to release. Five minutes later it happened again. A German corner was parried, but the rebound was shot hard over the bar by Christopher Nkunku.

Real seemed to think otherwise, but just before half-time Carlo Ancelotti’s men came back into play. Marcos Asensio gave a nice pass to Vinicius, who was watching the ball past Leipzig goalkeeper Janis Blaswich.

After the break there were no goals for a long time until Timo Werner scored the decisive 3:1 ten minutes before the end. The fact that Rodrygo converted a penalty in stoppage time was only relevant for the statistics.

Shakhtar to the Europa League

Shakhtar Donetsk has secured participation in the Europa League at Celtic Park in the same Group F. The Scots made it 1-0 through Greek ex-VVV striker Giorgios Giakoumakis but were unable to maintain that lead.

Mykhailo Mudryk signed to make it 1-1 in the second half. With that goal, Ukraine now have six points from five games, four more than Celtic. In the final round of the group stage, Leipzig meets Shakhtar and PSG meets Celtic.