Real Madrid produced another last-gasp goal in the Champions League on Tuesday night to spare their blushes at Sporting CP.
Zinedine Zidane's men have now won seven of their 11 Champions League points this season with goals in the 85th minute or later after Karim Benzema headed home on 87 minutes to give them a 2-1 victory at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
Madrid had come from behind to beat Sporting 2-1 in their first group stage encounter in September when Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata scored in the final five minutes and again they broke the hearts of the Portuguese who had been reduced to ten men when Joao Pereira was given his marching orders on 64 minutes.
But before that, Raphael Varane had got on the end of a scuffed Ronaldo flick-on from a Luka Modric free-kick to finish neatly in the 29th minute which put Real in the driver's seat.
Sporting were good value for an equaliser with Gelson, Bruno Cesar and Bas Dost all creating chances but the visitors held out for the most part.
The dismissal of Pereira for making contact with Mateo Kovacic did not stop the home team from coming at the 11-time European champions and on 80 minutes, they were handed a penalty when Joel Campbell's flick-up hit the arm of Fabio Coentrao, who had been appealing for handball against the Arsenal loanee.
Adrien Silva was the man to take the penalty duties for Lisbon and he managed to send Keylor Navas the wrong way to give his side some hope.
But Madrid did not throw in the towel and Benzema did well to get past Sebastian Coates to head home Sergio Ramos' whipped ball into the box.
The result sees Los Blancos second in Group F with 11 points, two behind Borussia Dortmund, who quite remarkably defeated Poland's Legia Warsaw 8-4 in the highest scoring Champions League game in history .
The Spanish and German giants, who meet at the Santiago Bernabeu on December 7, are both comfortably through to the Round of 16 while Sporting will head to Warsaw in a bid to maintain their Europa League status.
2016/17 UEFA Champions League - Group G
Sporting CP (POR): 1 (Adrien Silva (PEN) 80', red card: Joao Pereira 64')
Real Madrid (ESP): 2 (Raphael Varane 29', Karim Benzema 87')
Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal - 50,046
