Porto extended their lead at the top of Liga Portugal to five points after defeating Benfica 3-1 at Estádio do Dragão.
It was a high octane start with the visitors getting on top early on. Georgiy Sudakov had been looking shaky before his shot was deflected wide by Jan Bednarek.
Gianluca Prestianni headed Alexander Bah’s cross over the bar and the right-back was involved again, his left footed effort headed away from danger by Pablo Rosario.
Clément Lenglet was booked for taking out Victor Froholdt as Porto started to string some passes together. Veiga fired into Bah from close range but the Spaniard got another chance in the 31st minute and made no mistake.
Bednarek’s long pass found Pepê who caught Tomás Araújo out of position, Veiga running onto the ball, taking a touch and steering it past Samuel Soares.
The game got heated when Prestianni, whose face was bleeding following an earlier altercation, won a foul and got himself booked for abusing referee Miguel Nogueira.
A minute later Benfica were reduced to 10 men.
A heavy touch from Lenglet allowed André Silva to close in and disrupt the centre-back who then slapped the back of Silva’s head. Silva’s theatrical reaction was pathetic, but Lenglet should have known better and had no excuses as Nogueira showed the Frenchman a second yellow card.
Sudakov made way for Alessandro Circati and Hwang In-Beom replaced Veiga who aggravated a leg injury that he carried into the game.
Circati’s first involvement was dodging a huge bullet when his weak backpass was intercepted by Pepê. Soares came off his line to deny the Brazilian twice and prevent the Dragons from doubling their lead.
Benfica proved that they would remain a threat however, Pavlidis firing wide and William Gomes fortunate to avoid a yellow card for a foul on Prestianni.
Porto tried to kill the contest at the start of the second half but Benfica equalised in the 51st minute.
Prestianni did well to drift inside and when most expected him to shoot, he played a perfect pass over Porto’s defence where Bah did enough to head the ball past Diogo Costa.
The joy was short lived as Francesco Farioli’s side scored twice inside ten minutes.
The first came when Silva lost control of Rosario’s pass but did enough to steer the ball into the path of Froholdt who found the bottom corner.
Silva turned provider again on the hour mark when he did well against Araújo, holding the ball up and getting it into the danger area where In-Beom fired over Soares and into the roof of the net.
Marco Silva introduced Leandro Barreiro, Dodi Lukébakio and Andreas Schjelderup but the chances continued to fall Porto’s way. Soares denied Silva, Rosario fired wide and Bednarek couldn’t head Im-Beom’s corner on target.
Pavlidis tested Costa in the 83rd minute but there was no way back for Benfica, Farioli bringing on Oskar Pietuszewski and Samu Aghehowa who made their first appearances of the season.
Porto strike the first blow
Benfica came into the Clássico undefeated in 56 Liga Portugal matches and in tremedous form, winning eight straight games with 27 goals scored.
It appeared the unbeaten record would be extended before a brutal four minute spell saw Gabri Veiga break the deadlock and Clément Lenglet sent off.
We will never know what would have happened had Lenglet restrained himself and stayed on the pitch.
Regardless, his moment of madness alongside Tomás Araújo’s performance proved that Porto possess the strongest central defence in the competition. Diogo Costa vs Samuel Soares is not a contest worth discussing.
Not only did Porto claim a vital three points against their main title rivals, the introduction of Oskar Pietuszewski and Samu Aghehowa means they are finally get back to full strength.
The Dragons have not lost at home under Francesco Farioli and with Sporting CP appearing unlikely to be able to sustain a serious challenge, the title is Porto’s to lose.
Get ready for the drama
Expect the Portuguese media to go into overdrive with the conspiracy theories coming to the fore once again. The fact is that what Clément Lenglet did to get sent off was just dumb.
Farioli, predictablty, had nothing negative to say when asked about the refereeing: “Nothing strange today, so everything’s fine.”
Porto then decided to add fuel to the fire on social media:
Coisas ̷e̶s̶t̶r̶a̶n̶h̶a̶s̶ 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐬. pic.twitter.com/vmu48dgFsU
— FC Porto (@FCPorto) September 20, 2026
Marco Silva offered his thoughts about the officiating: “Regarding the sending-off, I’m not going to comment. If the club has something to say about the game, I think they should say it.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to continue like this until the end of the season. I come from a different culture. Here, unfortunately, it’s possible to influence referees before games, after games, during the week, in every way imaginable, and sometimes it works.
“I’m not going to go there. I think coach Farioli will come here next, take the opportunity and ask him the question. That’s not for me to answer.
“He spoke yesterday, he spoke last week about strange things, so you guys join in the conversation with him, because you also like it. We’re going to promote Portuguese football well, and we’re going to have very good shows.”
Silva also acknowledged that there was more to the result than dubious decisions: "I have to say that we lost the game and we were the ones who lost it. We don’t want to disrespect anyone: we lost the game tonight and that’s what we have to focus on.
“There were some aspects that we talked about a lot and that were important for us. We had to have emotional balance, regardless of provocations, regardless of the atmosphere. We have to have emotional balance and, therefore, I say, we lost three points and we lost the game.”
Rui Costa was not going to miss an opportunity to defend his club but admitted that Lenglet didn’t help himself. “Playing here with 10 men isn’t the same as playing 11 against 11, and I believe that with 11 against 11 the result would have been different based on what we were doing.
“I’m not going to discuss Lenglet ’s sending off , although, if you analyse it, André Silva complains about his face when it’s just a slight tap on the back of the neck, not even on the face. I’m not going to discuss the incident because, having a yellow card, he can’t risk an action like that.”
The Benfica president then moved onto the officials: “Regarding the double standards, especially in disciplinary matters, there is a tremendous double standard, in which Benfica was punished. The number of fouls that Porto commits, in addition to the normal foul that is not punished with a yellow card, gives strength to one team and weakens the other.
“This is what everyone saw. There are a series of fouls by Porto players that must be punished. Before Lenglet ’s expulsion , I see Prestianni receiving a yellow card for showing his bloodied face to the referee after a tackle he received almost off the ball, which wasn’t even sanctioned. It is in this sense that, without eliminating the errors we made, the double standard was far too exaggerated.”
(Photos: José Coelho & Manuel Fernando Araújo/Lusa)
