Liga Sagres wrap: Benfica pounce on Porto mishap

Benfica capitalised on a slip-up from Porto to extend their lead in Liga Sagres on Sunday.

With Porto held to a 1-1 draw at Maritimo, Benfica moved four points ahead of their rivals at the top of the table by brushing aside Vitoria Guimaraes 4-0 away from home.

Benfica, who finished second behind Porto last season, opened the scoring seven minutes before the break at the Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques through an Oscar Cardozo penalty.

Vitoria suffered another body blow on the hour mark when Brazilian defender Kanu was sent off for a second caution.

Ezequiel Garay doubled the advantage one minute later and Eduardio Salvio made sure of a comfortable win when he netted in the 82nd minute, with Rodrigo’s 94th-minute goal more icing on the cake.

Porto, meanwhile, failed to keep the pressure on the leaders when they played out a 1-1 draw at Maritimo.

James Rodriguez gave Porto the lead just after the half-hour mark, but South Korean attacker Suk Hyun-Jun levelled five minutes later to dent Porto’s title hopes.

In other results, Estoril climbed to fifth place via a 2-0 home win over Academica, first-half goals from Lica and Carlos Eduardo powering the win.

Moreirense had a 73rd-minute goal from Filipe Goncalves to thank for their 1-0 away win over Rio Ave, while 10-man Nacional needed a brace from Angolan attacker Mateus to snatch a 2-2 draw at Beira-Mar.

Ruben gave Beira-Mar the lead seven minutes into the match at the Estadio Municipal de Aveiro, but Mateus struck eight minutes into the second half to tie things up.

Camara restored Beira-Mar’s advantage on the hour mark, and the home side would have fancied themselves when Nacional’s Moreno was shown a straight red card on 72 minutes.

But it was Mateus who came to the rescue for the visitors, scoring his second goal after 79 minutes to secure a valuable point.