PARIS: Benfica’s David Neres scored a superb goal and grabbed an assist as Dynamo Kyiv’s improbable bid to reach the group stage of the Champions League ended at the final hurdle on Tuesday after the Ukrainian team’s heavy aggregate loss to the Portuguese side in the qualifying playoffs.

Nicolas Otamendi and Rafa Silva also scored in the first half as Benfica won 3-0 in the second leg in Lisbon for a 5-0 aggregate win.

“From the first second we wanted to win and showed it. Now we are happy to be in the Champions League,” Benfica coach Roger Schmidt said as his side qualified for the 12th time in 13 seasons. “Let’s wait for the draw and then we’ll see. It’s never easy. I’m happy because we deserve it.”

Dynamo, a storied name in European football, haven’t played a domestic game all year because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Champions League qualifiers are the only matches Dynamo have played and they beat Fenerbahce and Sturm Graz to get to the final round.

The Ukrainian league started its new season earlier on Tuesday with Shakhtar Donetsk and Metalist 1925 drawing 0-0 inside Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium, which has a capacity of 65,500 but was without spectators amid the war. Dynamo’s first league game is on Sunday.

Ukraine will have representation in Thursday’s group-stage draw in Istanbul through Shakhtar, who earned their place by being top of the Ukrainian league when it was abandoned last season because of the war.

While Dynamo head into the Europa League group stage, Benfica — the European champions in 1961 and ’62 — will be part of Thursday’s draw along with Maccabi Haifa and Viktoria Plzen, who also qualified Tuesday.

Milan Pavkov’s 90th minute own goal secured Maccabi’s spot as they beat Red Star Belgrade 5-4 over two legs.

Jan Kliment’s 73rd minute effort booked Czech outfit Plzen’s place in the draw as they beat Azeris Qarabag by the same score on aggregate.

The Dynamo players took to the pitch at the Estadio da Luz draped in the Ukrainian flag in a message of support to their compatriots back home.

Dynamo were already trailing 2-0 from the first leg and they were always on the back foot against last season’s quarter-finalists.

Neres set up the first goal in the 27th minute as his deep cross picked out former Manchester City defender Otamendi, who drifted away from his marker and emphatically headed home in front of a crowd of more than 58,000.

Silva profited from a defensive mistake as he intercepted Oleksandr Syrota’s wayward pass and produced a neat finish.

Goncalo Ramos then picked out Neres, who brilliantly bent the ball into the net to wrap up the scoring for the home side before half-time.

In the second half Enzo Fernandez’s close-range effort was saved by Dynamo goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan as Benfica wrapped up a convincing win.

Maccabi were gifted an own-goal in the final minute to claim a 2-2 draw with 1991 European champions Red Star, securing a return to the Champions League for the first time since 2009-10.

In that campaign, Maccabi lost all six games and didn’t score a goal.

Aleksandar Pesic and Mirko Ivanic had put the Serbian side ahead in the tie but it was in the balance again when Daniel Sundgren pulled a goal back for Haifa just before halftime.

It looked headed for extra time until the unfortunate Pavkov sliced the ball into his own net at a free kick.

Plzen, who were last in the group stage in 2019, also came from behind to beat Qarabag 2-1 to book a place in the lucrative group stage.

Second-half goals from Jan Kopic and Jan Kliment handed Plzen the win after Filip Ozobic had put the visitors in front after 38 minutes.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2022