Braga and Benfica set up a Taça da Liga (Portuguese League Cup) semi-final date against each other in January after overcoming Santa Clara and Tondela respectively on Wednesday night.
The Warriors thrashed the Azoreans 5-0 at the Quarry, while in Lisbon José Mourinho’s men beat Tondela 3-0.
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Braga 5-0 Santa Clara
An indifferent start to his tenure at Braga had rumours swirling that Carlos Vicens was on borrowed time as the head coach of the northern club, with president António Salvador notoriously short of patience with failing managers.
But boosted by their excellent European campaign (Braga currently sit top of the Europa League table after three straight victories), the team has begun to click, winning five and drawing one of their last six matches, with the draw coming away at champions Sporting.
The latest victory was a surprisingly easy clinical dispatching of Santa Clara. Five different scorers found the net – Pau Victor, Leonardo Lelo, Fran Navarro, Diego Rodrigues and Gabriel Moscardo – as Braga proved far too strong for the normally competitive islanders.
Benfica 3-0 Tondela
Benfica followed up their 5-0 thrashing of Arouca on Saturday with another ultimately straightforward win.
Tondela are struggling to find their feet after returning to the top flight this season, but they battled well at the Estádio da Luz, and it needed a VAR-awarded penalty for the Eagles to grab a first-half lead, with captain Nicolás Otamendi converting the spot kick.
Two late goals from the impressive Dodi Lukebakio and the irrepressible Vangelis Pavlidis put the icing on the cake.
The Greek striker has now scored 11 goals in his last 11 matches for Benfica.
