On penalties, Benfica knock out Braga and edge closer to title | OneFootball

Getting ever closer to retaining the title. On the afternoon of this Monday, April 11, the under-23 team began their Taça Revelação campaign. After two games without a win, Benfica eliminated Braga on penalties, 4-3, after a 1-1 draw in the quarter-final match of the competition.

Arnas Voitinovicius, Diogo Coelho, Diogo Rocha, Vladimir Mendes, João Capucho, André Gomes, Francisco Neto, Tiago Freitas, Gustavo Ferreira, Stevan Manuel and João Pedro Gonçalves were the players who made up the starting lineup. On the bench, Benfica’s coach also had Gonçalo Sobral, Ricardo Fernandes, Juvenal Correia, Marcelo Branco, André Vakulyuk, Diego Castel-Branco, Guilherme Castro and Dilan Neves.

Playing in Seixal, Vítor Vinha’s side, the current holders of the trophy, started stronger and pinned the team from Minho back. Still in the opening minutes, Francisco Neto broke through on the left and, without hesitation, opened the scoring for Benfica to make it 1-0 (5'). However, Braga managed to respond and eventually equalised through Sandro Vidigal (20'). Before the break, the Eagles could still have made it 2-1, but the ball struck the Braga goalpost.

In the second half, both teams came out determined to break the deadlock and came close to doing so on several occasions. However, Vítor Vinha’s team were more persistent, but could not break down Braga’s defensive wall. With no change to the score, the match remained level until the 90th minute, forcing extra time.

Thirty minutes later, neither team had managed to break the deadlock, and the match had to be decided on penalties, where Benfica won 4-3, with Voitinovicius the standout performer after saving two shots. With this result, the club from Luz advances to the Taça Revelação semi-finals, setting up a clash with Santa Clara.

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