Pavlidis hits hat-trick as Benfica cruise to 4-0 win at Moreirense | OneFootball

Moreirense 0-4 Benfica

Benfica followed up their impressive victory over Napoli in the Champions League in midweek with another excellent display, coming away from a potentially difficult game in Moreira de Cónegos with a thumping 4-0 win.

High-flying Moreirense were expected to cause difficulties for Benfica, and a closely-fought first half hour seemed to bear out that expectation.

But from the moment Vangelis Pavlidis opened the scoring in the 36th minute, heading in a delicious Aursnes cross after the Norwegian had combined well with Tomás Araújo, Benfica took control of proceedings.

In the second half the Greek hotshot was again the beneficiary of an Aursnes assist, his shot flying high into the net past André Ferreira with the aid of a deflection off Maracás.

Perfect hat-trick

Pavlidis completed his hat-trick by taking advantage of an early Christmas gift from the Moreirense defence, the striker seizing on a careless giveaway by Gilberto Batista and firing into the net for a perfect hat-trick: header, right foot, left foot.

Pavlidis recently praised the impact José Mourinho has made since taking over at Benfica, and the centre-forward is thriving under the new manager. His three strikes this afternoon take him to the top of the Liga Portugal goal-scoring charts with 13 goals from 15 games.

There was still time for Fredrik Aursnes to round off an equally superb individual performance with the fourth goal. This time it was goalkeeper Ferreira who was at fault with a loose pass straight to Aursnes, who produced a sublime lob that nestled in the net after grazing the underside of the crossbar.

Mourinho: “We must keep winning”

After the game Mourinho was asked about the jubilant Benfica fans who made the long trip up north and ended the match chanting that they want the team to be Portuguese champions.

“The fans want it, but they don’t want it more than us. Obviously, we want to win the league more than the supporters, but we have a (points) disadvantage, which we can only make up by winning games and hoping that those ahead of us don’t always win.

“But that doesn’t depend on us. The only thing that depends on us is our games, and our next match in the league is an adversary who are also having a great season. Playing Famalicão at the Luz is going to be a tough game that we have to win.”