A late Juventus fightback was in vain as the Italian giants were knocked out of the Champions League after losing 4-3 to Benfica - who subsequently progressed to the last 16 - in Group H at the Estadio da Luz.
Starting the day five points behind Roger Schmidt's side and Paris Saint-Germain, the Old Lady needed a big performance to keep their chances of progression to the knockout stages alive but were 4-1 down before the hour mark courtesy of Antonio Silva, Rafa Silva (2) and Joao Mario's goals.
Dusan Vlahovic had initially restored parity for the Old Lady, who also struck twice in two minutes through Arkadiusz Milik and Weston McKennie in the dying embers, but they could not complete an improbable turnaround.
An injury-hit Juventus were forced to soak up copious amounts of Benfica pressure in the first knockings of the contest, and not until the 13th minute did the Old Lady get into their hosts' half.
It only took 17 minutes for Benfica's pressure to tell, though, as Juventus paid the price for sitting deep and were undone by a short corner routine, with Antonio Silva on hand to meet Enzo Fernandez's inswinging cross to head home.
Juventus barely had a sniff prior to Benfica's goal, but it only took Massimiliano Allegri's side seven minutes to restore parity from their own corner routine, as Vlahovic was quickest to react to a goalmouth scramble and poke the ball over the line before Moise Kean made sure of the goal by lashing the ball into the roof of the net.
Building works had rendered goal-line technology unavailable for the game, but the strike was awarded to Vlahovic after a lengthy VAR review.
However, if Benfica's joy after their opener was short-lived, Juventus' was even more so, as Juan Cuadrado gave away a penalty for handball in the 28th minute – Mario made no mistake from the spot for Champions League goal number three of the season.
FT | ⌛️ | Full-time in Lisbon.#BENJUV #UCL pic.twitter.com/OLTw9sx3pq
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) October 25, 2022
Any wafer-thin hopes Juventus had of keeping their knockout dreams alive would seemingly be dashed in the 35th minute, as Mario was at the heart of Benfica's third goal – providing a powerful low cross for Rafa Silva to score with a cheeky flick of the boot from a couple of yards out.
There was no let up in the hosts' attacking prowess following the half-time interval, and Wojciech Szczesny was beaten for the fourth time in the 51st minute, as Silva made it a brace for himself by chipping the Juventus keeper from Alejandro Grimaldo's pass after Leonardo Bonucci had given the ball away.
Allegri's men were struggling to create anything meaningful approaching the final 20 minutes, but the Bianconeri suddenly found two goals out of nowhere, as Milik picked out the corner with a volley in the 77th minute before McKennie reduced the deficit further.
Lamenting their failure to produce such attacking ruthlessness in the earlier stages of the game, Juventus could not add another two to their tally as they failed to make the knockout stages for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
Allegri's side will hope to secure the consolation prize of Europa League football when Paris Saint-Germain visit Turin next week, while Benfica will have top spot in their sights when they travel to Maccabi Haifa on the final matchday.
Ben Knapton
