Real Madrid play Benfica in Champions League playoff: Team news and lineups

Lisbon’s Estadio da Luz will stage the first act of a heavyweight Champions League playoff on Tuesday, February 17, as Benfica welcome Real Madrid for a 21:00 CET kick-off that crackles with recent history and personal sub-plots. The tie is a direct consequence of the Portuguese side’s jaw-dropping 4-2 win over Los Blancos on January 28, a result that saw goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin rise for a 98th-minute header to flip the final league-phase standings and dump the 15-time European champions into the knockout path they had hoped to avoid.

That dramatic finale left Madrid on 15 points from eight matches and, after red cards for Raul Asencio and Rodrygo, reduced to nine men. The punishment is a two-leg shoot-out against the very opponent that condemned them to it, and a reunion with Jose Mourinho, the coach who guided Real to the 2011-12 Liga title before departing the Bernabeu a year later. Mourinho, appointed at Benfica in September, has revived the club after a slow start; three wins from their last four league-phase matches, including the late triumph over Madrid, carried the Eagles from the bottom dozen to the 24th and final playoff berth.

Mourinho will be without midfielder Fredrik Aursnes (injured), while defenders Alexander Bah (knee), Samuel Soares (muscle) and Joao Veloso (shoulder) remain doubtful. Otherwise the attack that tormented Madrid is intact: Vangelis Pavlidis leads the line, flanked by Andreas Schjelderup—who struck twice in January—and teenage Argentine centre-forward-turned-winger Tiago Prestianni. The expected XI lines up as Trubin; Dedic, Araujo, Otamendi, Dahl; Barreiro, Barrenechea; Prestianni, Schjelderup, Sudakov; Pavlidis.

Real Madrid arrive short-handed. Jude Bellingham (leg) and Eder Militao (tendon) are injured, while Asencio and Rodrygo serve suspensions carried over from the chaotic defeat last month. Kylian Mbappe, rested at the weekend against Real Sociedad, returns having scored twice in the January encounter yet still lamented his side’s lack of consistency. “We deserve to be in this situation,” the French star said. “A champion team does not switch on and off.”

Coach Alvaro Arbeloa is expected to pair Mbappe with Vinicius Junior behind him, though the balance of that front-loaded lineup remains a question. The makeshift back four will feature Carreras at right-back, teenage centre-back Huijsen alongside Antonio Rudiger, and Trent Alexander-Arnold operating on the left. In midfield, Camavinga and Tchouameni sit behind Federico Valverde, with Arda Guler tucked in to link the lines. The likely starting XI: Courtois; Carreras, Huijsen, Rudiger, Alexander-Arnold; Camavinga, Tchouameni; Valverde, Vinicius, Guler; Mbappe.

The return leg takes place in Madrid on March 10-11, with the aggregate winner advancing to the round of 16. For Mourinho, a chance to edge out the club where he once achieved La Liga glory; for Madrid, an early-season reckoning that could define their European campaign.