Benfica head coach Rui Vitoria said his side's desire to go into the Europa League as a seeded team motivated their 1-0 Champions League victory over AEK Athens.
Both sides went into the game knowing it had no bearing on the final standings in Group E, from which Ajax and Bayern Munich progressed, but third-placed Benfica needed to improve on their points tally of four to give themselves a chance of being among the seeded teams in the Europa League.
The Greek champions, who lost all five of their previous group games, looked set to earn the first point of their campaign until Konstantinos Galanopoulos was sent off shortly before Alejandro Grimaldo's 88th-minute free-kick bulged the net.