The Champions League playoff matches on Wednesday witnessed the qualification of Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Atalanta and Galatasaray to the final 16, after an exciting victory for the Royal team, a great return for the Italian and Turkish teams, and Juventus exiting with an incomplete “Remontada”.

Published on: 02/26/2026 - 00:42 Last updated: 02/26/2026 - 07:50

Brazilian Vinicius Junior settled the football and racial controversy together, and led Real Madrid to beat its guest Benfica 2-1 and qualify for the 16th round of the Champions League, on a night that witnessed the crossing of Paris Saint-Germain and Atalanta, and an incomplete “remontada” for Juventus.

At the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Benfica took the lead through Rafa Silva (14), before Frenchman Aurelien Chouamini quickly equalized with a low shot (16). Then Vinicius, who scored the winning goal in the first leg and was subjected to supposed racist abuse from Argentine Gianluca Pristiani, came back to seal the qualification ticket by scoring the victory goal alone with Ukrainian goalkeeper Anatoly Trubin (80).

In Paris, Paris Saint-Germain settled for a 2-2 draw with its guest Monaco, but benefited from a 3-2 first-leg victory to reach the round of 16 (5-4 on aggregate). Monaco took the lead with a goal by Magnes Akliush (45), before the defending champions turned the score around through Marquinhos (60) and Georgian Hvicha Kvaratskhelia (66), then Dutch substitute Jordan Tese equalized (90+1), in a match that saw Mamadou Koulibaly sent off (55 and 59) and Moroccan Achraf Hakimi started.

Read also: An investigation has been opened into Vinicius being subjected to “discriminatory behaviour”... What about the UEFA protocol to confront racism?

Atalanta signed one of the biggest “rematches” in this stage, as it overturned its 0-2 first-leg loss to Borussia Dortmund into a sweeping 4-1 victory in Bergamo and qualified 4-3 in the final.

Italian team Gianluca Scamaca (5), Davide Zappacosta (45), Croatian Mario Pasalic (57) and Serbian Lazar Samardzic took turns scoring goals from a penalty kick (90+8), while substitute Karim Adeyemi scored the only goal for Dortmund (75), which finished the match with ten players after Algerian Ramy Bensebaini was sent off.

As for Turin, Juventus was close to turning the tables on Galatasaray of Turkey, after coming back from behind in the two matches to draw 5-5 thanks to a hat-trick from Manuel Locatelli from a penalty kick (37), Federico Gatti (70) and the American Weston McKennie (82), despite the expulsion of the Englishman Lloyd Kelly (48).

However, extra time decided the fate of the ticket in favor of Galatasaray, when Nigerian Victor Osimhen (105+1) and then Turkish Baris Alper Yilmaz (119) scored, causing the Turkish champion to lose 2-3 in Turin, but qualifying for the final 16, 7-5 on aggregate.

France 24/AFP

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