The five minutes of added time had already spilled over but the Estadio da Luz was in no hurry to empty.
With one mighty swing of the ball to save Benfica from Champions League elimination, goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin hung in the air for what felt like an eternity before somehow, impossibly, thundering home a header Eusebio himself would have been proud of.
For a split second there was disbelief. Then the near-70,000 inside the stadium unleashed a sound closer to a roar than a celebration.
Jose Mourinho ran to the nearest ballboy he could find and embraced him with a jubilation and a passion we have come to expect from the self-styled Special One.
His side needed a goal against the team he once presided over and, in the form of their 6ft 6in Ukrainian stopper, they got it in the most extraordinary fashion to secure an incredible 4-2 win in the 97th-minute.
The new format in Europe’s elite competition has its detractors but this moment was surely worth the wait. Trubin’s goal knocked Madrid into the playoff spots, too, meaning Mourinho may once again face his old side come February.
Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scored an incredible header against Real Madrid
His goal secured Benfica’s spot in the Champions League playoff and sparked pandemonium
The 6ft 6in stopper was surrounded by his team-mates in disbelief at what they had just seen
Jose Mourinho couldn’t hide his jubilation after securing the dramatic win against his old club
‘Winning or losing in the last play had happened to me before, but in this situation where you’re winning but it’s not enough, and then you think it’s enough but it’s not, and you have to change and take risks,’ Mourinho said after the game, somehow trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed.
‘Winning against Real always has significant weight, but at that moment we have to go all out.
‘We’re not strong in the air, but the big guy went there and scored a spectacular goal. Regardless of the future in the competition, this victory is historic.’
The game may have gone down in the history books even before Trubin’s goal, such was the drama. Come the end of this relentless 90 minutes, only nine Madrid men trundled off the park after Raul Asencio and Rodrygo were shown red in injury time.
Alvaro Arbeloa’s side arrived in Lisbon knowing a victory would secure their place in the top eight of this competition, and were likely dreaming up where and how they would watch the next round of playoff fixtures after Kylian Mbappe’s opener on 30 minutes.
But that would be the only time this Madrid team would lead the game, with Andreas Schjelderup’s two goals and a penalty from Vangelis Pavlidis sending Benfica into a commanding lead.
Mbappe responded with another, but with Mourinho’s side needing that one goal, against his old team, there was always only going to be one outcome.
