On March 6th 2026 Benfica and Sporting would face each other for the Futsal UCL, the biggest competition in the sport. The matches between these two teams are highly consider by many as the best you can watch in Futsal. In the first leg, in Benfica’s home court, we had one of the most entertaining games of the year with Benfica scoring a goal in the last second to win the game 4-3 and take the 1 goal advantage to the second leg. Benfica and Sporting are not from the same city (Lisbon), but their stadiums are arenas are mere miles apart, creating an intense history of rivalry and attacks between fans from both teams that in the past have unfortunately even lead to deaths.
Before this game they faced 4 times this season with 1 tie, Benfica winning 2 and Sporting. winning 1. This game was quarterfinals match, meaning a win would put you one the final four, only raising the stakes and rivalry between the clubs and fans.
The game started as expected with a lot of fight for the ball, a lack of space to play and some nerves by both teams. But out of nowhere still within the first minute Sporting goalkeeper Bernardo Paço scored a beautiful goal to put his team in front in the game and tied on aggregate. This goal and the atmosphere in the arena opened the door for Sporting to surprisingly score 3 more goals in a span of 5 minutes, posting an impressive 4-0 against their rivals in just 6 minutes played, a truly dominant performance.
Benfica on the other side had a terrible start as one of its best players Panny Varela got a red card in the first minutes of the game, meaning he was out for the rest of the tie. Loosing 4-0 and with one of their best players out it all seem lost for Benfica. But surprisingly in the next couple of minutes Benfica seemed to finally get their groove and got into the game by scoring two quick goals in sequence. Giving some hope to their fans as in a couple of minutes Benfica went from being humiliated against their rivals 4-0 down away from home, to getting their hopes back up by quickly scoring 2 goals. With this the first half came to an end, a truly exciting and fast paced half that any sport fan would be amazed by.
Benfica started the second half needing to score one goal to tie it on aggregate, and almost like a miracle in the first 30 seconds of 2nd half Benfica scores their third goal tying the aggregate score (7-7). Sporting responded 5-3, Benfica made it 5-4 to tie it again on aggregate (8-8), but the home team scored 2 more goals in response. It was 7-4, and with this the game was virtually over. Benfica still tried until the end to revert the result but to no avail, as they see their chances of European glory get away once again.
After the game Alex Merlin Sporting’s captain said “We put a lot of hard work and dedication into this game, we faced a very good team that we respect but we’re able to win.”. Later when asked about the game Cassiano Klein Benfica’s Coach said “I want to thank the players for their attitude it’s not easy to start the game losing by 4 goals but they still fought until the end.”
With this defeat Benfica lost the chance to fight for their second UEFA Futsal Champions League title and their first since 2010. Sporting on the other hand advances to the final four, and will try to win their first title since 2021 and their third overall.
