Benfica 3-3 Inter: Inter pull off epic comeback after Joao Mario’s hat trick

A much-changed Nerazzurri side knew they were already through before kick-off and played like it, as they were blown away at the start.

Joao Mario scored a hat-trick inside 34 minutes to send Benfica cruising towards their first European win of the season, but Inter battled back after the break as Marko Arnautovic, Davide Frattesi and Alexis Sanchez scored in less than 20 minutes.

Things got worse for the hosts when Antonio Silva was sent off with six minutes to go, but they held on to take their first point of a disappointing Champions League campaign.

Match Events
5' GOAL! Benfica 1-0 Inter (Mario)

13' GOAL! Benfica 2-0 Inter (Mario)

24' Di Maria's shot over the bar

26' Arnautovic's shot stopped

34' GOAL! Benfica 3-0 Inter (Mario)

53' GOAL! Benfica 3-1 Inter (Arnautovic)

58' GOAL! Benfica 3-2 Inter (Frattesi)

72' Penalty Goal! Benfica 3-3 Inter (Sanchez)

86' Red Card! António Silva sent off

Line-ups
Benfica XI: Di Maria, Otamendi, Mario, Fredrik Aursnes, Rafa, Florentino, Casper Tengstedt, Anatoliy Trubin, Morato, António Silva, João Neves

Subs: Chiquinho, Arthur Cabral, Petar Musa, Leo Kokubo, Orkun Kökçü, Tiago Gouveia, João Victor, David Jurásek, Samuel Soares, Tomás Araújo

Inter XI: Sanchez, Darmian, Arnautovic, De Vrij, Acerbi, Klaassen, Emil Audero, Frattesi, Yann Bisseck, Carlos Augusto, Kristjan Asllani

Subs: Sommer, Mkhitaryan, Cuadrado, Calhanoglu, Raffaele Di Gennaro, Dimarco, Barella, Thuram, Lautaro, Aleksandar Stanković, Issiaka Kamate, Giacomo Stabile