Pavlidis hits hat-trick as Benfica thrash Casa Pia 7-0 | OneFootball

Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis has been in brilliant form this season

Benfica hit top gear in Rio Maior tonight, scoring seven goals without reply against Casa Pia in what will surely be one of the most one-sided games of the season.

The visitors got off to the perfect start when Gianluca Prestianni’s shot in the 2nd minute took a big deflection off David Sousa to wrong-foot goalkeeper André Gomes to give the Eagles an early lead.

The front line of Prestianni, Vangelis Pavlidis and Rafa Silva were running rings around Casa Pia and it was no surprise when Rafa doubled the lead soon afterwards after being neatly teed up by Pavlidis.

Benfica created and wasted several chances up to half time, before Pavlidis took centre stage.

Pavlidis on fire

Upon the restart the Greek striker scored a hat-trick in just seven minutes, thanks to three clinical finishes.

We are still in mid-August and Pavlidis already has 9 goals to his name in the nascent season. In Marco Silva’s attacking version of Benfica, he will feel confident of bettering the 30 goals he scored in each of his first two seasons at the Lisbon club.

Benfica did not relent, two more quick-fire goals around the hour mark making it 7-0 against the feeble home defence.

Firstly, Lawrence Ofori was unlucky to turn a Samuel Dahl cross into his own net, then substitute Jhon Durán fired a powerful shot past the helpless Gomes.

Late red card

A flurry of substitutions by both teams disrupted the flow of the game during the last half hour, with Benfica also taking their foot off the accelerator as they no doubt turned their thoughts to the first leg of their Europa Liga playoff on Thursday against Danish outfit AGF Aarhus.

A dreadful night for Casa Pia was topped off by a late red card for second-half substitute Khaly. The Gansos are rock bottom of the standings at this early stage and on this evidence they may well stay there.

Casa Pia 0-7 Benfica highlights