Benfica beats Real Madrid thanks to goalkeeper goal from Trubin: “Winning like that is crazy”

José Mourinho thought he had seen everything in football. “I always say: For me everything is déjà vu,” explained the Portuguese coach of Benfica, shortly after his team had shot out a few last-second lights against Real Madrid at the Estádio da Luz, the Stadium of Light in Lisbon. “This is the first time this has happened to me,” emphasized Mourinho as he stood at the microphone of the TV channel TNT Sports. His player Nicolás Otamendi also spoke of “madness”. Benfica striker Angelis Pavlidis said: “Winning like that is crazy.”

And the person who started the whole madness struggled for words: “I don’t know what to say. It’s unbelievable,” said Benfica goalkeeper Anatolij Trubin. The last scene of the entire Champions League preliminary round was so unbelievable that a few kilometers away, in the studio of the Portuguese TV station Now, the Bishop of Setúbal, Américo Aguiar, jumped so much in shock that his neckband almost burst. Just as he was about to explain “God’s relationship with storms” because of the heavy rain during the game. Because when the goalkeeper Trubin, who had moved up, scored with a header in the eighth minute of stoppage time to make it 4-2 against Real Madrid and Benfica had unexpectedly qualified for the playoffs of the Champions League (and Real had fallen out of the top 8), that was when he gasped Benfica fans there was a loud, sharp cry of jubilation among the TV studio workers.

There was not the slightest doubt about the legitimacy of Benfica’s victory; in fact, a two, three or four goal lead should have been shot out much earlier. Real Madrid, which was just considered to have been completely overhauled by Xabi Alonso’s successor Álvaro Arbeloa, had allowed twelve shots on its own goal and even more shots. Real’s defensive problems are not new; Only the goalkeeper of the Norwegian representative Bodö/Glimt had to intervene more often in the Champions League group phase than Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois. Until the final scene, however, “only” the Norwegian Andreas Schjelderup (36th/54th minute) and the Greek Pavlidis (45th + 3) scored for Benfica, and the honorable 3-2 lead would have meant 25th place for Benfica and the end of the premier class. But then he met Trubin, who was born in Donetsk, Ukraine and had to flee to Lisbon in 2023 in order to be able to lead a life in peace.

Trubin has now scored as many goals as Real striker Vinícius Jr. in the current Champions League, the Catalan newspaper mocked The Sports World. “Unbelievable,” Trubin said after becoming the fifth goalkeeper to score in the Champions League. Hans-Jörg Butt stands out among his colleagues, scoring three goals for Hamburger SV, Bayer Leverkusen and FC Bayern between 2000 and 2009. But none of them were as emotional as the Ukrainian’s.

Mbappé criticizes his team’s lack of motivation and thus outlines how much this defeat is once again plunging Real Madrid into a crisis of meaning

Trubin, who, by the way, also excelled as a goalkeeper with saves that no one will remember, had no hero role in mind as the game drew to a close. As he plucked a ball out of the air, he lay down on his stomach in the penalty area to take a few seconds off the clock. That wasn’t surprising: Coach Mourinho and the rest of Benfica’s coaching staff were convinced that 3-2 would be enough to reach the playoffs. That’s how the assistants calculated it. Mourinho ordered everyone back and also substituted defender António Silva. “I wanted to block our goal,” said the coach, but then someone noticed that the calculation didn’t work. Benfica still needed a goal. Only then did things get hectic: Real had to accept two dismissals – against Raúl Asencio and Rodrygo – and because everyone suddenly waved Trubin forward energetically when Real’s Jude Bellingham had committed a foul in the half field, the keeper made his way.

Fredrik Aursnes took the free kick into the penalty area, the 1.99 meter tall Trubin rose up and headed the ball into the goal. Mourinho forgot himself: he took a ball boy in his arms and marched with him in front of the Real Madrid bench, cheering; He later apologized to his former player and current colleague Álvaro Arbeloa. “He is a man of football, he understands it,” claimed Mourinho. This also applied to others, such as Real defender Dean Huijsen, to whom Mourinho shouted an incredulous “f***ing hell” in the changing room tunnel. They weren’t the only harsh words in the catacombs. These were filled with curses from the Madrid professionals, who had traveled to Lisbon in third place in the table – and started the return journey knowing that, as ninth place, they would now have to work extra shifts for the Champions League in February.

The earwitnesses consulted were unable to say with certainty whether Kylian Mbappé, who scored the two Real goals (30th/58th), also had injuries on his lips. What is certain, however, is that Mbappé’s neck on Wednesday was thicker than that of the real Ronaldo, one of the Frenchman’s predecessors as Real’s center forward. He indulged in scolding colleagues. “What we saw is not normal,” raged Mbappé: “They were better than us, and it wasn’t a question of quality or tactics, it was a question of motivation. You could see that Benfica were playing for their lives.” When he added a few considerations to Real, Mbappé went into the basics. “A little bit of everything” is missing, especially consistency and continuity. You can’t be there one day and not the next: “No championship team acts like that.”

Mbappé’s words perfectly outline how this defeat is once again plunging Real Madrid into a crisis of meaning; After the 2-0 win in Villarreal on Saturday, they were thought to have been overcome. Coach Arbeloa was then revered like a shaman. On Wednesday, a look at his face raised the question of whether two and a half weeks as Madrid coach would be good for his health.

Mourinho, on the other hand? Was after the first win of his coaching career against Real Madrid on top, at the end of a month that had brought one disappointment after another. Benfica is ten points behind leaders Porto in the league and only has one place in the Europa League; their exit from the League Cup was followed by a knockout in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup. Trubin had already tried in vain to score with his head at the last second and only narrowly failed. But now Benfica has unexpectedly landed in the playoff round of the Premium League.

For Mourinho, this will definitely be a journey into his own past. Either he will face Real Madrid again in the playoffs – where he attracted a lot of attention but few titles from 2010 to 2013. Or Inter Milan, the club with which he won the Champions League in Madrid in 2010. With this perspective for February, Mourinho took off his soaked coat on Wednesday and immediately put on the lambskin: “Real Madrid and Inter are the two strongest candidates for the title. Not us.”