Sporting Portugal won the top match against Benfica on Friday evening with great force majeure. Ruben Amorim’s team made an excellent impression in the city derby and expressed this in goals: 1-3. The victory will be a warning for Ajax, which Sporting will receive next Tuesday in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. In that Champions League match, only prestige, a profit premium and coefficient points are at stake, because Ajax and Sporting are already assured of place one and two respectively in the group.
Benfica was overwhelmed by Sporting and was already behind after eight minutes. A smooth attack ended with Pablo Sarabia, who suddenly took a cross from Pedro Gonçalves out of the air: 0-1. The two turned out to be easy to find anyway, because a new combination led to Gonçalves’ shot on the post just before half-time. The star player did not participate in the first game with Ajax due to an injury. Sporting thought they would score 0-2 before halftime via Paulinho, who turned out to be minimally offside. The VAR disallowed the goal.
Passe teleguiado de Pote e grande finalização de Sarabia para o primeiro dos leões ?? #LigaPortugalbwin pic.twitter.com/vi5y6AYTqa
— bwin_pt (@bwin_portugal) Dec 3, 2021
After the break Benfica came out of the dressing room a lot better. Pressure was created on Sporting’s goal and Darwin Núñez headed the ball on the crossbar after an hour of play. On the other side, the visitors struck mercilessly three minutes later. Paulinho was stabbed by Matheus and knocked the ball beautifully past Odysseas Vlachodimos: 0-2. The final blow fell a few minutes later, when Benfica’s defense was set up completely wrong. Matheus was able to continue to the goal and put the ball in in peace: 0-3. Benfica did something back deep in injury time via Pizzi, who placed the ball beautifully in the far corner from outside the penalty area: 1-3.
Sporting thus dealt a considerable blow to the arch-rival, who had not won on foreign soil for six years. Os Leões come in second place in points with league-leader FC Porto. Benfica is stuck at a gap of four points behind the two competitors.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FC Porto | 13 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 25 | 35 |
| 2 | Sporting Portugal | 13 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 35 |
| 3 | Benfica | 13 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 31 |
| 4 | Sporting Braga | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 22 |
| 5 | Estoril | 12 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 21 |
| 6 | wallet | 13 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 20 |
| 7 | Vitoria Guimaraes | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| 8 | Gil Vicente | 12 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 14 |
| 9 | arouca | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | -5 | 13 |
| 10 | Tondela | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | -6 | 12 |
| 11 | Boavista | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | -7 | 11 |
| 12 | Pacos Ferreira | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | -7 | 11 |
| 13 | Famalicão | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -4 | 10 |
| 14 | Vizela | 12 | 1 | 7 | 4 | -10 | 10 |
| 15 | Maritimo | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -5 | 10 |
| 16 | moreirense | 12 | 1 | 6 | 5 | -8 | 9 |
| 17 | Belenenses | 12 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -15 | 8 |
| 18 | Santa Clara | 12 | 1 | 4 | 7 | -16 | 7 |
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