MONACO, France : Benfica twice came from behind to end AS Monaco’s unbeaten run in the Champions League on Wednesday, scoring two late headers to grab a thrilling 3-2 win at the French high-fliers who had Wilfried Singo sent off.
Monaco’s Eliesse Ben Seghir got his side off to the perfect start, breaking the deadlock in the 13th minute by ghosting into the box to rifle home Aleksandr Golovin’s pullback after a superb counter-attack.
Benfica took control and should have equalised in the 37th minute when Angel Di Maria snapped up a poor back-pass, but Radoslaw Majecki saved, and Nicolas Otamendi’s header from the resulting corner flew just wide.
The second half started frenetically with Monaco’s Breel Embolo smacking a shot off a post, a miss that proved costly when Benfica’s Vangelis Pavlidis made the most of Monaco defender Caio Henrique’s weak header to steal the ball and equalise.
The chaos continued as both sides had goals ruled out for offside by VAR before Monaco centre back Wilfried Singo picked up his second yellow card just before the hour mark.
Monaco went ahead again as substitute Soungoutou Magassa picked the perfect time to score his first goal for the club, charging on to Christian Mawissa’s angled pass and drilling it low into the corner to restore their lead in the 67th minute.
With Monaco tiring, their Portuguese visitors sensed an opening and winger Di Maria produced a superb cross for Arthur Cabral to level in the 84th minute. Four minutes later the Argentine attacker crossed for Zeki Amdouni to head the winner.
Monaco slipped to eighth place in the 36-team standings on 10 points. Benfica are 14th on nine.
