The Portuguese Championship traditionally brings fans unforgettable emotions, bright moments, and beautiful goals. When the principal rivals meet, you expect an equal and tense game with many chances and attacks on the gates of both teams.
But what happened on matchday 24 of the Portuguese Championship shocked many fans. Only some 1win users could have expected such an outcome. Benfica came to visit Porto, where, after 90 minutes of play, they lost to the hosts with a resounding score of 5-0.
Chronology of the match
The Eagles, who have performed well in their away matches this season, this time failed to demonstrate a confident game in defence or efficiency in their attacks. But their opponents at the Estádio do Dragão did absolutely everything right on what turned out to be a memorable evening for their fans. Despite several successful recent matches, in which Benfica’s Ukrainian goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin has shone, he could not save the team from 5 unanswered goals.
From the first minutes of the match in the 24th round of the Portuguese Championship, nothing foreshadowed such an outcome of the game. Porto confidently possessed the ball in the first few minutes, but Benfica gradually seized the initiative. After 20 minutes, man of the moment Wenderson Galeno put Porto ahead, firing in at the back post after Benfica failed to deal with a corner. Before half time the Brazilian scored again, fooling Trubin with a clever finish.
From that moment on, it was obvious that Benfica needed to change tactics and try to turn the tide urgently. The Eagles had time to discuss the game plan for the second half after a coach team-talk and some changes in personnel, but the pattern of the match did not change.
In fact, things soon got worse for the visitors. The match definitively got away from Benfica in a disastrous 6-minute spell. In the 55th minute Wendell scored the third unanswered goal for Porto.
Then on 61 minutes, defender Otamendi could not withstand the tension and resentment from the defeat. Already on a yellow card, he committed a crude foul on Pepê and duly received his second yellow and subsequent red card from the referee and left the field. Benfica were losing 3-0 and playing with a man down with still half an hour to go.
The Eagles failed to turn the tide and Porto smelled blood. The hosts confidently created more chances and dispatched two of them on 75 and 90 minutes of the match. As a result, Benfica crushingly lost away to one of its principal rivals with a final score of 5-0.
Position of the teams in the standings
Despite the defeat, Benfica retained second place in the standings and remain just one point behind championship leaders Sporting. Their Lisbon rivals have played 23 matches and have accumulated 59 points. Benfica have played 24 matches and have 58 points.
As for Porto, the Dragons managed to get a little closer to the leaders through a resounding victory and improved their own statistics of goals scored and conceded. After matchday 24, Porto have 52 points and are looking to catch up with their main rivals, although local foes Braga are just a further three points back, on 49 points.
