David Neres promotes Orkun Kökçü's wonderful pass to an assist

Orkun Kökçü handed in his calling card to Benfica on Sunday evening. The Haarlemmer made a significant contribution to the 4-0 win of as Águias on Portimonense. Rafa Silva also excelled with two goals and an assist. Thanks to the victory, leader Benfica now has three points more than Sporting Portugal, which still has two matches in hand.

In addition to Kökçü and Neres, trainer Roger Schmidt also had a starting place for former Feyenoord player Fredrik Aursnes, who played as a left back. Rafa Silva was in the striker and was supported by Neres, João Mario and Ángel Di María.

Kökçü had the opportunity to put himself on the scoreboard in the opening phase of the match against Portimonense. After a nice action by Neres on the back line, the ball ended up at the feet of the Turkish international via Di María, who was unable to outwit goalkeeper Kosuke Nakamura from close range.

After half an hour of play, the Japanese goalie also had an excellent answer to a shot from Nicolás Otamendi, who tried to score after an excellent first attack in the short corner. Nakamura scored well and saved Portimonense. Di María gave Nakamura the opportunity to excel again just before half-time, by not getting his shot into the corner enough.

Between the 55th and 59th minute things went very quickly and three goals were scored. Some nice short combinations just before the visitors' box seemed to yield nothing, until the ball ended up at Rafa Silva's feet via Alexander Bah. The striker hit with an outside right shot via Nakamura: 1-0.

Kökçü played a major role in the 2-0. The former Feyenoord captain beautifully deepened Neres, bringing the ex-Ajax player face to face with Nakamura. Neres played around the Japanese, after which he simply slid in.

Rafa Silva also played an important role in the third goal of the evening. With the outside of his foot he passed perfectly to Di María, for whom it was a breeze to tap in from close range: 3-0.

That was not the end for Rafa Silva, who scored the fourth and final goal of the match fifteen minutes before the end. Kökçü received the ball in the box and played straight to the far post, where Rafa Silva tapped in his second of the evening. An excellent victory for Benfica, which also achieved success in midweek by reaching the eighth finals in the Europa League at the expense of Toulouse.

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