Ten-man Sporting could only draw 2-2 at Chaves but FC Porto rattled in three without reply, against Moreirense, to move to within four points of the Eagles.SC Braga moved up to third after beating bottom club Tondela.
The Benfica faithful received an early shock when Iuri Medeiros’ fourteenth minute free-kick gave Boavista
the lead. Six minutes later it was the same player who provided the cross for Lucas Tagliapietra to make it two. The home fans were still reeling as the ‘Panthers’ stunned the champions when André Schembri made it three with only twenty-five minutes on the clock! Benfica boss Rui Vitória had seen enough, sending on Kostas Mitroglou in place of Rafa before the interval. The Greek striker soon made his mark with a simple finish just minutes before the interval. Six minutes after the interval Benfica were right back in the game as Franco Cervi was tripped inside the area. Jonas claimed and conquered the spot-kick to make it 3-2. Disaster struck for Boavista midway through the second period as Andrija Zivkovic looked to create something for his forwards with a hopeful cross, which was instead headed by Fábio Espinho into his own net to cancel out the visitors’ initial three-goal-lead. Boavista nearly snatched an improbable victory as Renato Santos was denied by keeper Ederson with ten minutes remaining. Sporting Lisbon were a goal down after only four minutes at Chaves who came close to doubling the blow around the half-hour mark through Fábio Martins, who raced away into the box before prodding an effort just wide of Rui Patrício’s far post. On the stroke of half-time, Bas Dost headed home Gelson Martins’ cross to level the score. Sporting boss Jorge Jesus livened up his team by introducing former Fulham favourite Bryan Ruiz and André Felipe in the second-half but the Lions were down to ten men after seventy minutes as Rúben Semedo picked up a second yellow card. Bas Dost gave the visitors the lead as he converted André’s pull-back but with time running out Chaves unlocked the Sporting defence as Fábio Martins latched onto a Sebastian Coates interception to deliver an inch-perfect curler into the top corner. The two teams met again on Tuesday night in the Portugal Cup when Chaves added to Sporting’s woes as 22 year-old Carlos Ponck nipped in to score the only goal of the game three minutes from time. Sporting are now out of both cup competitions and wallowing in fourth place in the league, eight points behind arch-rivals Benfica.
FC Porto took the lead against Moreirense through Óliver Torres after half-an-hour. André Silva took advantage of Corona’s left-footed shot to nod in the second of the night, making it eleven goals in the league this season.Things went from bad to worse for Moreirense on the stroke of half-time as Francisco Geraldes was shown a red card for a second bookable offence. Marcano’s powerful header seventeen minutes after the break made it 3-0 and three points, to move the Dragons into second place and just four points off top spot. Rui Fonte, brother of Southampton’s José Fonte, scored twice to give SC Braga a 2-0 win over Tondela and move ‘Os Arsenalistas’ into third place just two points behind FC Porto.