Group D
Benfica 1-0 Lille

Fabrizio Miccoli handed his new suitors a winning start to their Champions League campaign, after scoring a dramatic late winner two minutes into injury time.

The diminutive centre forward – who is spending the season on loan at the Eagles from Italian Champions Juventus – cut a menacing figure with his intelligence and skill, and was justly rewarded for his endevours when he headed home Simao’s left wing cross in the dying seconds.

It was only new coach Ronald Koeman’s second competitive victory of his tenure so far.

And it looked, for a time, as though the home side would carry their poor domestic form over into their first European encounter of the season, allowing Mousilou and Debuchy to make incursions into their penalty area in the first twenty minutes. Neither, however, could convert.

Benfica gradually attuned to the game, though, and had a number of good efforts to sieze the lead, Simao’s powerful drive from distance and an earlier volley from Miccoli being amongst them.