It was soon understood that the title was not going to escape him traveling to Luz. Benfica beat Santa Clara this Saturday and won the 38th title of national soccer champion.
Benfica would guarantee the title if they beat the Azorean team and Gonçalo Ramos opened the scoring in the seventh minute of the game. Rafa doubled the lead in the first half. In the second half, Grimaldo scored the third from the penalty spot.
Benfica came on strong and opened the scoring in minute seven. Bah’s cross from the right and Gonçalo Ramos, with a header, opens the scoring at Luz and leave the eagles closer to the title.
At the same time, in Dragão, FC Porto also beat Vitória SC and played with one more player, thanks to the sending off of Tomás Händel, but the result was not interesting at Luz while Benfica had the advantage.
Santa Clara tried to take the lead in the 25th minute. After a corner, the Azorean team came close to equalizing, with a header that went just outside Babi.
But the rise of the Azorean opened spaces behind. On the counterattack, Rafa received the ball inside the area and finished off on goal. The ball kept deflecting off a Santa Clara defender, but it went straight to the goal. 2-0 against Benfica in La Luz and the title getting closer.
The game came to rest with Benfica winning by two goals. The title was 45 minutes away from staying at the Estádio da Luz.
The home team entered the second part with control of the game, since the advantage gave some comfort and the title was very close to staying in Lisbon.
But the marker moved again. In the 60’s, punishing a hand from Ítalo in the area, Grimaldo took the penalty and did not hesitate, despite some whistles before the penalty. Benfica had a three-goal advantage and the fans of La Luz already felt like national champions.
Starting at 3-0, Santa Clara tried to hit the ground again, seeking to reduce the deficit, and got some approaches and the occasional dangerous shot.
In the last few minutes, Roger Schmidt still gave a gift. Odysseas Vlachodimos left the game and Samuel Soares entered to play a few minutes and also proclaim himself national champion.
The match ended shortly after and Luz exploded with joy. Benfica secured the 38th national football champion title.
Eleven of Benfica: Vlachodimos; Bah, Otamendi, Morato and Grimaldo; Florentino and João Neves; João Mário, Rafa and David Neres; Gonzalo Ramos.
Eleven from Santa Clara: Gabriel Batista; Sagna, Ygor Nogueira, Italo and MT; Jordan and Adriano; Ricardinho, Bruno Almeida and Andrezinho; Matheus Babi
Benfica substitutes: Samuel Soares, Gilberto, Lucas Veríssimo, David Neres, Casper Tengstedt, Andreas Schjelderup, Chiquinho, Mihailo Ristic and Petar Musa
Santa Clara substitutes: Marcos Díaz, Allano, Tagawa, Calila, Paulo Henrique, Rildo Fialho, Kento Misao, Paulo Eduardo and Bobsin
Source: TSF
