Tough, but done! Benfica beat Gil Vicente 3-1 with two late goals (videos) | OneFootball

Benfica beat Gil Vicente 3-1 this Sunday in a match counting for the 6th round of the Liga Portugal Betclic. After a tough battle, the Eagles overcame Luís Pinto’s side at the Estádio da Luz, with two goals from Vangelis Pavlidis and one from Gianluca Prestianni.

Surprisingly, Gil Vicente opened the scoring. In the 8th minute, Gil Martins carried the ball down the left channel, took advantage of the lack of pressure and picked out Héctor Hernández in the box, who got the ball past Samuel Soares to make it 1-0. The young goalkeeper - who is close to renewing his contract - was not blameless.

In the 19th minute, Marco Silva’s side had a clear chance to level the match. Daniel Banjaqui won the ball high up on the right, fed Prestianni and he crossed into the six-yard box, where Pavlidis appeared but headed over.

To Benfica’s delight, the equaliser did come. A chipped ball was played into the left side of the box in search of Prestianni; the Argentine tried to score, the defense failed to clear properly and the ball fell to Pavlidis. One-on-one with Lucão, the Greek forward dinked the ball home to make it 1-1 in the 29th minute. The score remained unchanged until half-time.

After the restart, Benfica found it difficult to break into the final third against the Barcelos side. With João Palhinha and Fredrik Aursnes already on the pitch, Pavlidis pounced on a loose ball on the right side of the box after a cross from Banjaqui, and fired in a shot that drew a great save from Lucão.

After the water break (75’), Benfica took the lead. Aursnes received the ball on the right side of the box and was "brought down" by Tidjany Touré. Vangelis Pavlidis stepped up and made no mistake from the penalty spot to make it 2-1. Prestianni did not want to be outdone and scored a stunning goal at 90+3, assisted by debutant Claudio Echeverri.

In their next match, Benfica face Milan next Wednesday, September 16. The game, corresponding to the first round of the Europa League league phase, against the side coached by Ruben Amorim, will kick off at 8:00 pm at San Siro.

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