FC Porto back to winning ways, thrash Carvalhos 8-2 | OneFootball

FC Porto returned to winning ways in the National Championship by defeating Carvalhos 8-2 in Vila Nova de Gaia, in the 13th round of the regular season, the last match of the first half.

After seeing a run of nine consecutive victories interrupted by a Champions League defeat against Barcelona (3-5), the Dragons picked up three more points.

With this victory, the national champions move closer to the top spot, currently held by Benfica with 37 points, followed by OC Barcelos with 33 and Sporting with 29, although the latter has one game in hand.

Paulo Freitas kept the same starting five used in the recent Champions League match. Carvalhos started better and took the lead with a long-range shot (1-0), but Porto’s response was swift: Gonçalo Alves assisted and Carlo Di Benedetto equalized (1-1).

The French international scored again shortly after, this time assisted by Rafa, completing the turnaround (1-2) and then finishing his hat-trick with a determined play (1-3). Four minutes before halftime, Telmo Pinto extended the lead for the blue and whites (1-4), but Carvalhos immediately reduced the deficit to 2-4, which was the score at the break.

In the second half, FC Porto consolidated their dominance: Hélder Nunes scored right after the restart (2-5), Gonçalo Alves netted the sixth midway through the second half (2-6), Ezequiel Mena added another in the last four minutes (2-7), and Gonçalo Alves closed the scoring, setting the final result at 2-8.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.