St Petersburg: Nicolas Gaitan and Talisca scored late goals as Benfica came from behind to beat Zenit St Petersburg 2-1 in Russia on Wednesday and march on to the Champions League quarter-finals 3-1 on aggregate.
Trailing 1-0 from last month's first leg, Zenit levelled the tie when Hulk opened the scoring on the night in the 69th minute and extra time was looming when Gaitan stunned the Petrovsky Stadium by netting at the other end five minutes from time.
Substitute Talisca wrapped up the victory with the last kick of the game as the Portuguese league leaders progressed to the last eight of the Champions League for the first time since 2012, when they also eliminated Zenit at this stage.
"With full respect to our opponents I was confident that we would make it through to the quarter-finals before kick-off," Benfica coach Rui Vitoria said.
"We played really well, we scored two goals and I believe we were the better side and won deservedly.
"Our young players who came into the side put everything into the game and showed great desire. They proved they can play at a high level and I'm really proud of my men."
Zenit coach Andre Villas-Boas was pleased with the overall performance of his team but couldn’t hide his disappointment at the manner of their exit.
"Everything went the wrong way for us in the last minutes just like in the first game," Villas-Boas said.
"Today we performed really well for 40 minutes in the second half and created some big chances but we just lacked a bit of luck to tilt the balance in our favour.
"It's very disappointing to leave the Champions League this way."
