Having scored in 15 successive matches coming into this, Benfica wasted little time trying to continue that run, and six minutes in a neat move down the left set up a chance for Renato Sanches, but he dragged his shot wide.
The evergreen Ángel Di María soon began to control the tempo, and his cross was taken down expertly by Bruma, who rattled the post with his effort in the 19th minute.
Yet, three minutes later, the 38-time Portuguese champions found themselves behind as Boca scored with their first meaningful attack. Lautaro Blanco collected the ball on the left, nutmegged his marker, Florentino Luís, and provided an inch-perfect low ball to Miguel Merentiel to divert past Anatoliy Trubin.
Not resting on their laurels, the Argentinians made it two goals from two shots on target soon after – a deep Kevin Zenón corner was headed back across goal by Ayrton Costa to Rodrigo Battaglia, who nodded home for 2-0.
The goals seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of Benfica, so they were delighted to be handed a lifeline on the stroke of HT. Nicolás Otamendi was caught inside the area, and following a VAR review, Di María rolled in the resulting penalty to halve the deficit.
Only three goals scored after the break across Boca’s last five matches suggested a turnaround for As Aguias would be hard to come by, and so it was proving, as by the hour mark an Otamendi header flying over was the only effort for either side. Miguel Ángel Russo’s side responded with another Battaglia header, but this time he couldn’t find the target.
The Portuguese side’s mission became tougher in the final 20 minutes – with tensions rising, things boiled over when Andrea Belotti was shown a straight red card for catching Ayrton Costa in the head with a high foot.
However, playing a man down was no matter for Bruno Lage’s side, who equalised six minutes from time when Otamendi powered a header past Agustín Marchesín from an Orkun Kökçü corner.
Álvaro Carreras wasted a great chance to win it, as Benfica’s winless run in all competitions slipped to four matches, while Boca became the first Argentinian side to avoid CWC defeat to a European side, despite having Jorge Figal sent off late on for a horror challenge on Florentino Luís.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica)
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