Benfica beat Gil Vicente and could close the gap to four points next round | OneFootball

Benfica defeated Gil Vicente 2-1, this Monday, March 2, in a match counting for the 24th round of Liga Portugal Betclic. After being eliminated by Real Madrid in the Champions League, the team from Luz returned to winning ways and could get closer to first place in the next round.

In a duel played at Estádio Cidade de Barcelos, the home team managed to effectively disrupt the strategy of the reds in the first half hour. In the 35th minute, António Silva took advantage of a corner kick from Fredrik Aursnes and headed towards Lucão's goal. Vangelis Pavlidis appeared to make a subtle deflection and scored the 1-0.

In the second half, the Gilistas equalized in the 52nd minute. Responding to a low cross from Santi García, Héctor Hernández finished precisely and surprised Anatoliy Trubin with the trajectory he gave the ball. The 2-1 for the Eagles came in the 73rd minute from Andreas Schjelderup. After perfectly receiving a poorly cleared ball by Cáseres, the Norwegian took a defender out of his way and shot across into the top corner of the Minho team's goal.

With this victory – the 28th in 45 matches this season – the team led by José Mourinho now has 58 points and remains in third place in the Liga Portugal Betclic standings. Porto (65) is in first place. Sporting is second with 61.

The red team will be back on the field next Sunday, March 8, against Porto. The match, counting for the 25th round of Liga Portugal Betclic, against the team led by Francesco Farioli, will be played at 18:00 at Estádio da Luz.

Vangelis Pavlidis (1-0):

Andreas Schjelderup (2-1):

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