Benfica hit back at Villas-Boas' criticism with video of nine Porto fouls | OneFootball

Benfica reacted to the statements of André Villas-Boas, president of FC Porto, made at the Portugal Football Globes ceremony on Tuesday. A day later, the Luz club posted on social media a video that compiles several hard tackles by Porto players on Benfica players during the 8th round classic of the I Liga, played at the Dragão Stadium and which ended without goals (0-0).

Villas-Boas had accused Rui Costa, Benfica's leader, and Frederico Varandas, president of Sporting, of exerting "pressure on the refereeing". The response from Benfica was direct: through images, the club highlighted what it considers to have been an unequal application of the criteria by the match referee.

In the post, Benfica compiled nine interventions that, in its view, should have deserved a more rigorous disciplinary response. Five happened in the first half and four in the second: at the 7th minute, a tackle by Gabri Veiga on Sudakov; at the 12th minute, an elbow from Alan Varela on Pavlidis; at the 20th minute, a step on Francisco Moura on Lukebakio; at the 28th minute, a heated argument between Barrenechea and Alberto Costa; and at the 36th minute, a collision between Samu and António Silva.

In the second half, the video shows an attempt to tackle by Bednarek on Lukebakio at the 49th minute, a step on Pepê on Dahl at the 61st minute, an aerial dispute between Bednarek and Pavlidis at the 70th minute and, finally, a new step on by Alan Varela, this time on Sudakov's heel, at the 77th minute.

The post, widely shared, emerges as a symbolic response to the criticisms of the Porto leader and again underlines the tense atmosphere between the two rivals, in a championship where refereeing controversies continue to fuel the debate beyond the field.

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