Angel Di Maria netted directly from a corner as Benfica kept their European dreams alive in a crunch-match win over RB Salzburg on Tuesday.<br /><br />With his side needing a victory to leapfrog Salzburg into Group D's Europa League place, the Argentine forward whipped an inswinging corner towards Orkun Kokcu at the front post - the first goal of the game before the Portuguese side ran out 3-1 winners in Austria.<br /><br />Despite the Turkish midfielder failing to make contact with the cross, the ball continued past goalkeeper Alexander Schlager to give As Aguias the lead.<br /><br />A VAR check for a potential foul by Nicolas Otamendi offered Salzburg and Schlager a brief hope of a reprieve for the mistake but a subsequent review confirmed that the goal would stand. <br /><br />Following the goal, fans took to social media to question whether the Austrian international could have done better in preventing the opener.<br /><br />One fan wrote: 'Horrendous keeping'<br /><br />Another added: 'A clever corner kick from Angel Di Maria! Goalkeeper could have done better.'<br /><br />A further supporter chimed in: 'This is so amateur. I'm just not sure men are ready to play professional football yet. <br /><br />'I think they need to train for a few more years until they're ready like the women'<br /><br />To make matters worse for the LASK stopper, when the two sides had previously met back in September, Salzburg's official social media account had posted a meme suggesting the goalkeeper was wise to Di Maria's attempts to net directly from a corner.<br /><br />Benfica would go on to double their advantage on the brink of half-time, with Di Maria again in the thick of the action as he set up Rafa Silva who duly converted to notch his eighth goal of the season in all competitions.<br /><br />Salzburg hit back through Luka Sucic after the interval but Arthur Cabral's goal in stoppage time would end any hopes of a fightback and condemn last year's Austrian Bundesliga champions to elimination from Europe.<br /><br />Di Maria and Benfica meanwhile will move into the Preliminary knockout round of the Europa League, where they could face the likes of Brighton, Rangers, or Roma.
