Juventus stayed in the Champions League race with a 2-0 victory over Benfica at the Allianz Stadium, a result that lifted Luciano Spalletti's team closer to automatic qualification places and left the Portuguese
side facing a difficult final league-phase match after slipping further down the overall standings.
The win moved Juventus from 17th to 15th in the league-phase table, with Khephren Thuram and Weston McKennie scoring the decisive goals, while Benfica dropped to 29th and now sit two points below the qualification cut-off, despite having a late chance from the penalty spot.
The revamped Champions League format sends clubs ranked ninth to 24th into a knockout-round play-off, while the top eight secure direct passage to the last 16, and Juventus now sit only one point behind those automatic places after winning three straight European games.
Juventus had started this league phase without a victory in the first four fixtures, yet three consecutive wins since then have created their best Champions League run since November 2021, while Benfica's defeat, together with the missed penalty, means the Portuguese club must now win and hope other results go favourably.
The first half in Turin produced few clear chances, with goalkeepers Anatoliy Trubin and Michele Di Gregorio both making important saves, Trubin denying Kenan Yildiz from close range and Di Gregorio reacting sharply to turn away a strike from Heorhiy Sudakov, keeping the match goalless at the interval.
The breakthrough arrived 10 minutes after the restart when Thuram drove into the Benfica penalty area, held off defenders and calmly steered a low shot into the bottom-left corner from around 15 yards, giving Juventus control and increasing the pressure on the visitors to respond.
Juventus doubled the advantage nine minutes later as McKennie combined neatly with Jonathan David on the edge of the box, exchanged a swift one-two pass and then finished confidently beyond Trubin, continuing McKennie's rich scoring run in the Champions League.
FT | | One clean sheet, two goals, three points! #JuveSLB #UCL pic.twitter.com/hua9QAdyi2JuventusFC(@juventusfcen) January 21, 2026
Juventus Champions League statistics and records
McKennie's goal made the midfielder the first Juventus player to score in three consecutive Champions League matches since Federico Chiesa achieved that feat more than five years earlier, while Thuram's composed finish delivered the first Champions League goal of Thuram's career, coming on the 17th appearance in the competition.
Benfica still created pressure after falling two behind, with Frederik Aursnes striking the woodwork from a corner, then Gleison Bremer conceding a penalty after a foul on Leandro Barreiro, but Vangelis Pavlidis slipped during the spot-kick and sent the ball wide of Di Gregorio's post.
Benfica's failure from the spot was the club's first missed penalty in the Champions League since November 2012, ending a sequence of 14 successful attempts, and came in a match where Benfica actually produced a slightly higher expected goals figure, registering 1.38 xG compared with Juventus' total of 1.36.
The result left Juventus with renewed confidence heading into the final league-phase round, as three straight victories have strengthened the club's position near the top-eight places, while Benfica must recover quickly from the defeat and missed penalty to keep any remaining hope of progress alive.
