Benfica beat Nacional 2-0 to move one point behind Sporting Clube de Portugal who occupy top spot in the Primeira Liga. It was one way traffic in Madeira with Lucas França making four saves in the first half, the pick of the bunch to deny Nicolás Otamendi from point blank range.
The fog threatened to deny the Eagles once again in Chopana but the sky cleared, Orkun Kökçü rattling the bar five minutes after the restart. The breakthrough came in the 59th minute after Ulisses conceded a silly penalty, Ángel Di María stepping up and sending França the wrong way.
The Argentinian sealed the deal in the 74th minute when his deflected shot rolled past França. The goalkeeper produced another fine save late on when he tipped Leandro Barreiro's header off the woodwork, but Benfica would not be denied.
Bruno Lage was pleased with the way his side controlled the game after giving up a late equaliser in the 1-1 draw at AVS on Sunday, saying: "It was a very important and indisputable victory, on a very difficult pitch. Nacional fought well at home, but considering what we did and the chances we created, I think we could have scored more".
Can João Pereira yet make it as a successful Sporting Clube de Portugal coach? Ruben Amorim’s under-pressure successor has followed a 4-game losing run by guiding his team to two hard-fought and nervy wins, against Boavista in the Liga on Saturday, and versus Santa Clara in the Portuguese Cup tonight.
The 14th round of the Segunda Liga brought us no surprises whatsoever. The top three teams, Tondela, Penafiel and Torreense all racked up victories by at least a two-goal margin.
Sporting managed to win 3-2 against Boavista at the weekend. Even though the Lions put an end to the four-match losing streak, the victory against the Panteras Negras was not convincing at all.
FC Porto clocked up a routine home win against ten-man Estrela da Amadora to move back up to second place in the standings. Nico González guided the ball home with a low right-foot shot from a corner to give Porto an early lead.