Moreirense continued their fine start to the season under new coach César Peixoto.
A shot by Lawrence Ofori in the 85th minute that deflected past Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin seemed to have given the hosts all three points.
However, a penalty deep in injury time converted by Marcos Leonardo fixed the final result in a 1-1 draw, but the pressure will intensify on Benfica coach Roger Schmidt after another poor performance. Tom Kundert reports.
Moreirense came into the match on the back of two victories and a positive performance despite defeat at Braga last weekend.
Benfica were attempting to make it three wins in a row after beating Casa Pia and Estrela da Amadora in two home games, albeit with patchy performances. Perhaps for that reason Roger Schmidt made changes to the lineup with António Silva recalled in place of Tomás Araújo and Ángel Di María getting his first start of the season.
Bright start
The hosts began brightly, with Madson’s poor control wasting a one-on-one situation against Trubin after an excellent pass by Alanzinho. The same player called the Ukrainian goalkeeper into action soon afterwards, his shot from outside the box forcing the Benfica No1 into a sprawling save.
Benfica gradually began to get the upper hand with Álvaro Carreras looking dangerous with his raids and crosses from the left flank.
However, the visitors were singularly failing to carve out chances. Di María had two speculative efforts that sailed well over the bar and Prestianni also tried his luck from distance but the ball curled wide.
Moreirense were forced into a change in the 42nd minute when the injured Jeremy Antonisse was replaced by Gabrielzinho, who would have an immediate impact.
Goal chalked off
On the stroke of half time the home supporters went wild as a well worked break saw the hosts apparently take the lead. Alanzinho was again the architect, robbing Barreiro, surging forward and playing in Gabrielzinho, whose cross-shot beat Trubin with the aid of a deflection.
But the celebrations were cut short when VAR alerted the referee to a foul by Alanzinho at the start of the move and the goal was disallowed.
Benfica go close
Schmidt swapped Renato Sanches for Florentino Luís at the break and Benfica enjoyed their best period of the match at the start of the second half. In the 51st minute Vengelis Pavlidis almost scored when his powerful low shot after good combination play with Presitianni was well saved by Kewin.
Two minutes later Benfica were again close to breaking the deadlock, with Di María’s shot kicked off the goal-line by the impressive Maracás after Kewin had again saved from Pavlidis.
Moreirense weathered the storm and created a good chance of their own just after the hour mark. Centre-back Maracás ventured into the opposition box and headed goalwards at the second post, Trubin showing good reactions to push the ball away for a corner.
An intense battle ensued with neither team looking likely to score, a series of substitutions for both teams further disrupting their ability to put together cohesive attacking moves.
Late goal action
With the clock ticking down Moreirense took the lead. An attempted Carreras pass was intercepted, with Benny playing a superb first-time backheel pass to Ofori, whose shot from inside the box hit António Silva, wrongfooted Trubin and nestled in the corner of the net.
Moreirense had five minutes plus stoppage time to hold on for victory.
Benfica piled forward and were rewarded for their efforts in the 5th minute of stoppage time when Luis Asué brought down Leandro Barreiro in the box and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. The Moreirense players vehemently protested that Marcos Leonardo had handled the ball before the foul was committed but the referee did not budge.
Leonardo thumped the ball low into the net to rescue a point for Benfica, but with two weeks until their next match, it is going to be an uncomfortable fortnight for the under-fire Schmidt.
Moreirense: Kewin Silva, Fabiano, Marcelo, Maracás, Frimpong, Lawrence Ofori, Rúben Ismael (Sidnei Tavares, 55’), Antonisse (Gabreilzinho, 42’), Alanzinho (Benny, 77’), Madson Monteiro (Guilherme Schettine, 78’), Luis Asué
Benfica: Anatoliy Trubin, Alexander Bah, António Silva, Nico Otamendi, Álvaro Carreras, Florentino Luís (Renato Sanches, 46’), Leandro Barreiro, Orkun Kökçü (João Rego, 86’), Gianluca Prestianni (Marcos Leonardo, 65’), Ángel Di María (Benjamín Rollheiser, 77’), Vangelis Pavlidis (Arthur Cabral, 77’)
Goals:
[1-0] Lawrence Ofori, 84’
[1-1] Marcos Leonardo (pen), 90 + 6’
