Russian side Spartak Moscow gained their first win of this season's Champions League campaign after losing their first two matches with a hard fought 2-1 win over Portuguese opponents Benfica here on Tuesday.
First-half goals by Rafael Carioca and an own goal by his Brazilian compatriot Jardel gave the hosts the much needed three points after two successive 3-2 defeats away at Barcelona and then at home to Scottish champions Celtic.
Benfica, who had levelled through Lima, look highly unlikely to repeat their achievement of reaching the Last 16 last season as they have just a point after three games.
Spartak trail second-placed Celtic by a point after table-toppers Barcelona beat the Scottish champions 2-1 later on Tuesday with a last second goal by Jordi Alba.
Spartak's Spanish coach Unai Emery was delighted to have something to smile about in what has been a difficult start to his tenure in Moscow.
"Naturally, I'm happy with the result," he said.
"We dominated play almost throughout the match."
"We scored only twice but played with commitment both in attack and in defence giving our rivals almost no chance to play to their strengths. I'm happy both with the result and our performance today."
His Benfica counterpart Jorge Jesus - who has had to rebuild the side after losing key players in the summer - said he had not given up the ghost yet of reaching the knockout stage
"We have two matches in Lisbon to come and cannot afford any more mistakes," he said.
"We must win both of them. Overall we still have hances to advance.
"It was hard to play in Moscow as a synthetic pitch is uncommon ground to my players. We created many chances but failed to score the second goal though we deserved it."
Spartak caught Benfica napping in the third minute, taking full advantage of a poor pass by Nemanja Matic just inside the hosts half.
Spartak got the ball to Spanish playmaker Jose Manuel Jurado, who found Carioca running through on an overlap and the 23-year-old defensive midfielder coolly clipped the ball past Artur into the net.
Benfica tried to turn the pressure on Spartak goalkeeper Artem Rebrov, who is the third choice 'keeper and playing only his first game in over a year, and forced a good save out of him in the 14th minute from Spanish Under-21 striker Rodrigo.
Spartak were denied a second by the bar in the 24th minute as Ari's right footed volley, from a brilliant cross by Jano Ananidze, only three metres out beat Artur but rebounded to safety.
Rebrov was holding his own in goal and made another smart stop from Matic on the half hour mark as Benfica desperately tried to get back into the encounter.
They finally succeeded in the 33rd minute as Salvio put in a pinpoint cross which was met by former Braga marksman Lima, who glanced his header past Rebrov.
The hosts, however, restored their lead two minutes before the break as Evgeni Makeev clipped in a dangerous low cross from the right and Jardel, with Ari waiting to pounce, turned it into his own net.
Makeev went close for Spartak early in the second-half at which point Benfica coach Jorge Jesus opted to throw his Paraguayan ace striker Oscar Cardozo on, having opted not to start with him because he is coming back from injury.
However, it was Benfica's Argentinian wing Salvio who went closest to levelling the game for a second time as he nipped in behind Makeev but poked his right footed effort just wide of the far post with 20 minutes remaining.
The visitors forced a series of corners in the dying minutes but to no avail as the Russians held out for a deserved victory, though, the match ended on a sour note as there was a clash between some of the players after the final whistle.