“Since I started to play football, when I was six, I worked hard and did everything to stop goals. Now, after one moment, a lot of people know me because I scored a goal.”
Anatoliy Trubin has had a bit more time to process what happened in the 98th minute of Benfica’s final Champions League group game against Real Madrid.
But it still doesn’t feel entirely real.
To recap: because of injuries and a couple of VAR reviews in the first half, the game was still going six or seven minutes after every other fixture on the last, chaotic day of the group stage had finished. That meant Benfica knew what they had to do to make it into the playoffs for the knockout stages.
Well, in theory they did. After those other games finished, their 3-2 advantage over Real meant they were in 25th place, level on points but one goal behind Marseille, who occupied the final playoff spot. But Benfica manager Jose Mourinho had banned phones, laptops and whatever else from the dugout, on the entirely reasonable basis that they should block out any distractions and focus completely on their own result.
So they didn’t know. To the point that, in the 92nd minute, Mourinho had made his final two substitutions on the basis that they needed to, in his words “close the door” and protect their 3-2 advantage. Trubin began wasting time on goal kicks and after catching a cross.
But the crowd started screaming at him as he tried to run down the clock. Because they knew. They knew Benfica needed one more goal, before anyone on the bench, let alone the pitch did. Eventually the message got through to the coaching staff. Panic stations. Arms waving. Garbled instructions being yelled. When Benfica got a free kick out on the right flank about 40 yards from goal, Mourinho, knowing that aerial prowess wasn’t necessarily among his team’s strengths, told Trubin, his 6ft 4in Ukrainian goalkeeper, to go up. Only then did he understand.
Midfielder Fredrik Aursnes took the kick. Real were down to nine men at this point, so their defensive resources were depleted. Trubin lurked in the middle. It was a perfect cross, skimmed at the perfect height and on the perfect line. From the moment it left his boot, it was destined for only one forehead. Trubin rose, in slightly ungainly fashion, about eight yards from goal. He met it perfectly. Bang. Thibaut Courtois beaten, chaos ensues.
(Ricardo Nogueira/Sports Press Photo/Getty Images)
“It’s still crazy for me,” says Trubin. “Still, sometimes, I can’t believe it happened. Today I finished training and a fan stopped me for a photo — they said, ‘Good goal’. That’s never happened before. It’s crazy. That moment will always be with me.”
It’s worth reiterating that it’s not an exaggeration to make it seem more dramatic: Trubin really didn’t know Benfica needed another goal until seconds before he scored.
As late as the 96th minute, he chested down a wayward cross from Eduardo Camavinga rather than catching it, to help run down the clock. When he theatrically dropped on the ball, the Benfica fans started to scream at him. The camera cut to Rui Costa, the club president, irate and flummoxed in the stands, shouting and waving his hands in Trubin’s direction.
Trubin laughs about that sight now. “We were winning, so I didn’t need to hurry up. I didn’t understand at all why the fans started to scream, why some of my team-mates were pointing at me — ‘one, one, one’ — I didn’t understand. But when we got the free kick, Mister (Mourinho) pointed to me to go up, then I asked someone, ‘We need one more goal?’”
As Trubin ran up, a little smile appeared on his face. Maybe it was the absurdity of the situation, maybe it was the thought that he might actually score: he doesn’t remember now. He reached the area and waited for the cross, but then realised he wasn’t far enough forwards so adjusted his position accordingly. The instinct of a goalkeeper when a cross comes over might be to catch it, but Trubin says he didn’t have to adjust his mindset to avoid a really embarrassing moment. For about 10 seconds, he wasn’t a goalkeeper.
“When you play, you don’t think. You just do. This moment, it happened so fast. Maybe because the cross was so perfect, maybe because it (a goal) had to happen, for me it was natural, something that easily came.
“In this moment, you need to risk. You need to put everything all in. If I need to score, I need to go right in there, to make our fans happy, to make Benfica better. I just ran, and then the movement of my head, it was like I was a striker. It was crazy.”
When the ball went in, everyone in the stadium — including, I am sorry to report, your otherwise neutral correspondent from The Athletic, high up in the stands — lost their minds. The players started running in different directions. Substitutes and coaches burst onto the pitch. Mourinho hared up the touchline and hugged a ballboy. Trubin wheeled away, into the centre of the pitch, escaping his team-mates for just long enough to do a knee slide.
“I still have some wounds on my knee,” he says. “Then all my team-mates jumped on me.”
He pauses when asked to describe that moment, to sum up the emotions he felt.
“It’s something… I dunno. First of all, I started to run. I need to check my GPS. Normally I’m not an emotional person, but in this moment I let all my emotions out. My goalkeeping coach told me ‘be focused’, because we didn’t know if the game was over. Maybe there would be one more attack.”
There were no more attacks. The final whistle went. Courtois, smiling, approached Trubin afterwards with a magnanimous word of congratulations.
“I respect every goalkeeper a lot, especially Courtois, but after this moment, for me he’s even more special. After a difficult defeat, he came to me with a smile to say congratulations. It showed me he’s not just one of the best on the pitch, but off the pitch too. It’s a good example for the younger generation. After a tough defeat, you can show respect.”
Mourinho didn’t say much to him after the game. “You don’t need to say anything for such a special moment,” says Trubin. But if he had been effusive, you wouldn’t have blamed him, because the goal potentially saved Benfica’s season. A couple of weeks before the Real game, they were knocked out of both domestic cups in the space of seven days, and at that stage they were 10 points behind the league leaders. Elimination from Europe at the first hurdle would have meant four months of games that, realistically, wouldn’t have meant that much.
Now they have the playoffs, in which they were drawn against Real again. “It was either Inter or Real. For me, I don’t care who we play, but because it’s Real, it will be more emotional because of that last game. More tense, more interesting for everyone. We need to believe in ourselves for sure. Without belief, you can sit at home and not do anything.”
It’s been tricky since Mourinho arrived in September, but Trubin still talks glowingly about him. “When you look at him, he’s like this” — Trubin puffs his chest out — “always. It’s his natural position. Nothing has changed with age. He has just gained more experience. It’s unique to work with such an amazing coach. What I have learned is about his positive thoughts: if we have a chance, it’s not over. If it’s possible, it’s possible.”
Trubin signed for Benfica in 2023 from Shakhtar Donetsk. He hasn’t been back to Ukraine since. He hasn’t been able to return. He dedicated his goal to his country, which nearly four years ago was invaded by Russia, but for Trubin, the pain has lasted for longer than that.
Born and raised in Donetsk, he joined Shakhtar as a 13-year-old in 2014. But that was the year pro-Russian separatists took control of parts of the Donbas region, forcing the club to relocate to Lviv. Trubin has never been able to play a competitive game in his home town — he’s never been back to Donetsk full stop — but he still holds out hope that it might happen.
“It’s my dream. I hope. I have positive thoughts. But as we see now, it’s very difficult. I hope in my lifetime, in my football career, I can play, or maybe watch a game in Donetsk.”
Trubin playing for Shakhtar in 2021 (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
On the wall of his home in Lisbon, he has a poster of the Donbas Arena, Shakhtar’s now-abandoned home stadium. “It’s to remember that Donetsk was, is and will forever be Ukraine,” he says.
He sees his family a few times a year. They have to visit him, rather than him going home. I ask if his family are safe. He puffs his cheeks out. “I’m always in touch with my family. They go 17, 18 hours without electricity. They try to do as best as they can, especially at night. Sometimes there are bombs, drones, but we never know. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s very loud, a lot of rockets and drones. I dunno what to say about ‘safe.’
“In the UK, even here in Portugal, every country has their own problems. When the war started, it was a hot topic. I understand that people can’t talk all the time about Ukraine. They have their own problems. But of course, as a Ukrainian, I have to remind the world that the war is not over, that it’s not normal life.”
Football will inevitably seem trivial in this context, but in March Trubin will be part of another playoff, this time for the World Cup, when Ukraine must beat Sweden, then either Poland or Albania, to reach the tournament in the summer. If they make it to the World Cup for the first time in two decades, it will mean more to them than anyone else.
“Now, I don’t think too much about it. After, maybe it will be something I’ve never felt before. Ukraine last qualified in 2006, so it’s a unique moment for us, because of the war too. It’s a huge moment not only for football in Ukraine, but for the whole country.“