Porto have held onto their three-point-lead at the top of the Primeira Liga after coming back from a one-goal-deficit to beat Belenenses SAD 4-1 away from home, this Sunday.

The Dragons went a goal down early to the hosts before a hat-trick from Brazilian forward Evanilson charged Sérgio Conceição’s men onto a 4-1 win versus the ten men of B SAD.

Also in the Portuguese capital, there was yet more disappointment for Benfica who drew 1-1 at home against lowly-placed Moreirense. The Eagles’ rivals, Sporting, did their bit away to Vizela with a 2-0 victory, reopening a six-point gap between the Lions and third place.

 

Benfica 1-1 Moreirense

In Ricardo Sá Pinto’s debut as Moreirense boss, Benfica were tasked with defending themselves against the former Sporting star on their own turf as they aimed to close in on their Lisbon rivals.

The Eagles were unlucky not to find themselves in front in the 20th minute after Rafa Silva fired onto the bar, with fortune continuing to side with Moreirense in the second half after Gilberto’s own goal, flying in off of Nicolás Otamendi’s clearance.

Benfica equalised five minutes later through Darwin Nuñez but would fail to go one better and find a winner in front of a restless Estádio da Luz, despite Alex Grimaldo's and Roman Yaremchuk’s best efforts to deny a 1-1 draw.

 

Vizela 0-3 Sporting

With Rúben Amorim back in the dugout, Sporting were hoping to bounce back from their rare blip away to Santa Clara in their second consecutive trip on the road, against Vizela.

The Lions took the lead with little less than a couple of minutes to go until the half-hour mark as Pedro Gonçalves reunited himself with the scoresheet.

Before the first half was out, Sporting had a second goal to celebrate after Daniel Bragança, courtesy of a slight deflection, found the back of the net against the newly-promoted side.

The two-goal advantage allowed for a more relaxed showing in the second period for Sporting, managing the game and equalling Porto’s 47-point mark prior to their fixture away to B SAD.

 

Belenenses SAD 1-4 FC Porto

Following Sporting’s 2-0 win against Vizela, Porto’s mission in Belém was to protect their newly-gathered three-point-advantage at the top of the table with an expected win against Belenenses SAD.

The hosts were in the mood for a shock, however, taking the lead as early as the 13th minute with a header from Abel Camará, attacking a Diogo Calila corner. 

Porto’s tide gradually rose, taking advantage of Sphephelo Sithole’s red card in the 31st minute to equalise soon after through Evanilson, as the two sides entered the half-time break level at 1-1.

A couple of goals in quick succession around the hour mark had Porto flying towards an important victory, with Evanilson, again, as well as Mehdi Taremi both on target.

Porto’s fourth went amiss following Luiz Felipe’s spot-kick save against Luis Díaz but, just five minutes later, Evanilson was on hand to find another way through and clinch his hat-trick, creating a nine-point-gap between them and third-placed Benfica.

By Patrick Ribeiro

Matchday 18

Boavista 1-1 Gil Vicente

Benfica 1-1 Moreirense

Sp. Braga 0-1 Marítimo

Estoril P-P Arouca

Santa Clara 2-2 Tondela

Vizela 0-2 Sporting

Famalicão 0-0 P. Ferreira

Belenenses 1-4 FC Porto

 

Monday 17th January

Portimonense vs. Vitória

Comments (2)

This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

FCP! Getting results again. Let's keep the train rolling.

Fabio Cardoso has proven a worthy replacement to Pepe.

Pepe did not have a great game but he kept on trying and that counts for a lot.

Evanilson starting to find his feet. He was a...

FCP! Getting results again. Let's keep the train rolling.

Fabio Cardoso has proven a worthy replacement to Pepe.

Pepe did not have a great game but he kept on trying and that counts for a lot.

Evanilson starting to find his feet. He was a hot prospect when he came to Porto, good to see him evolving.

Bruno Costa at RB was baffling, I don't know what Saraiva did to piss of Sergio, but an Argentine international capped RB is like 7th string. If Bruno Costa didn't get the start, I bet Marches on would've started as RB before Saraiva.

B-SAD still makes me sad since I can't call them Belenenses anymore. It's a sad tale and I wish the club went back to what it was instead of 2 entities.

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Chris
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Was Jesus Corona running out of contract at the end of this season? How come Porto sold him for a mere €3 million? This is too less, it's just insane. He was worth around €30 million last summer.

In recent history, Porto have had ways of letting...

Was Jesus Corona running out of contract at the end of this season? How come Porto sold him for a mere €3 million? This is too less, it's just insane. He was worth around €30 million last summer.

In recent history, Porto have had ways of letting go their players for close to nothing, namely Brahimi, Vincent Aboubakar, Moussa Marega, Ze Luis, Adrian Lopez, Héctor Herrera, and so on.

Tiquinho, Alex Telles, Danilo and now Sergio Oliveira are all being sold for less than €20 million.

As much as Porto does great business in the transfer market, I also think they used to fail to capitalise in some of their transfers.

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Dhazer
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