Benfica blow away brave Gil Vicente 5-1 thanks to late flurry of goals

A hugely enjoyable game was played out in the Portuguese capital tonight where Benfica’s 5-1 triumph does not reflect how tightly fought the match was.

Gil Vicente took an early lead through Félix Correia, but the hosts quickly turned it around thanks to goals from Nico Otamendi and Kerem Aktürkoglu.

Most of the 60,000 crowd surely expected Benfica to hammer home their advantage, but nearly an hour passed before the next goal was scored with Benfica dominating but Gil refusing to lie down and playing some lovely possession-based passing football in patches.

Substitute Zeki Amdouni finally broke Gil’s resistance with a superb long-range goal, and two late strikes by Florentino Luís and Benjamín Rollheiser made it a satisfying night’s work for Benfica. 

Lage larging it

Benfica are a different beast under Bruno Lage. Four games, four victories, and crucially in comparison to his predecessor Roger Schmidt, significant contributions are being made by a plethora of different players in a richly talented squad, often off the bench.

However, just like against Santa Clara in Bruno Lage’s first game back in charge at the Luz earlier this month, the home fans were stunned by conceding early.

Gil Vicente’s Japanese playmaker Kanya Fujimoto, who was outstanding throughout, threaded a clever ball into the box to meet the darting run of Félix Correia, who lifted the ball over Trubin and into the roof the net. Eight minutes played and the visitors were in the lead.

Captain fantastic

Benfica came roaring back and by the 25th minute they had turned around the game. Captain Otamendi was back to his imperious best tonight and the Argentine grabbed the equaliser with a typically well-taken header from a corner from his compatriot Di María.

Soon afterwards Aktürkoglu continued the brilliant start to his Benfica career with another well-directed header to turn in an Aursnes cross. It was the Turk’s third goal in four matches since arriving at the Lisbon club.

At this stage Gil coach Bruno Pinheiro may have been worried that his team would capitulate, but exactly the opposite happened. The Barcelos team refused to thrown in the towel, making several incursions towards Benfica’s goal with well-worked moves, crisp passing and unafraid to commit several players forward, especially in the first half.

Rúben Fernandes and Aktürkoglu missed presentable chances to add to the scoring at either end of the pitch as the teams walked off for the interval with Benfica holding a 2-1 lead.

After the break Benfica exerted more control on proceedings, but Gil remained a threat on the rare occasions they got hold of the ball. 

Triple substitution boosts Benfica

Bruno Lage gave the hosts an injection of energy midway through the second half with a triple substitution, Amdouni, Rollheiser and Arthur Cabral entering the fray, with Aktürkoglu, Kökçü and Pavlidis making way.

Cabral almost made an immediate impact, his header from a corner bouncing into the ground and narrowly over the bar.

The Benfica fans could finally breathe easier in the 78th minute when Zeki Amdouni collected a pass from Rollheiser and laced a 25-yarder that skidded past Gil’s Brazilian goalkeeper Andrew and low into the net. It was a deserved goal for the Swiss international who had hit the woodwork twice in his brief cameo appearances in previous games.

Álvaro Carreira missed a glorious opportunity to make it 4-1 when with Andrew out of position he skipped past the last defender but with the wide-open goal gaping he somehow hit his shot the wrong side of the post.

Gil almost got back into it as only a sharp save by Trubin denied substitute Jorge Aguirre a goal.

Benfica keep going

Encouraged by another massive crowd, Benfica continued to press forward against a now exhausted Gil and were rewarded with two more goals in the 90th and 94th minutes.

First Florentino scored the second home match running, with Otamendi against showing his strength in the air to flick a corner on that the midfielder headed home. I the final seconds of the game Rollheiser took advantage of a bad mistake by Andrew who attempted to intercept a cross but only succeeded in spilling the ball at the Argentine’s feet.

The final score is harsh on Gil, who despite being on the wrong end of a thrashing can take plenty of positives from the match.

As for Benfica, the big win will be another timely boost to morale ahead of their Champions League encounter at home to Atlético Madrid on Wednesday.

By Tom Kundert

Benfica: Anatoliy Trubin, Tomás Araújo, Nicolás Otamendi, António Silva, Álvaro Carreras (Gianluca Prestianni, 93’), Florentino Luís, Fredrik Aursnes, Orkun Kökçü (Benjamín Rollheiser, 68’), Ángel Di María (Jan-Niklas Beste, 76’), Vangelis Pavlidis (Arthur Cabral, 68’), Kerem Aktürkoglu (Zeki Amdouni, 67’)

Gil Vicente: Andrew Ventura, Zé Carlos (Jonathan Mutombo, 91’), Rúben Fernandes, Jonathan Buatu, Sandro Cruz (Kazu, 92’), Jesús Castillo, Kanya Fujimoto, Santi García (João Teixeira, 70’), Jordi Mboula (Tidjany Touré, 70’), Cauê dos Santos (Jorge Aguirre, 79’), Félix Correia

Goals:

[0-1] Félix Correia, 8’

[1-1] Nico Otamendi, 17’

[2-1] Aktürkoglu, 25’

[3-1] Zeki Amdouni, 78’

[4-1] Florentino Luís, 90’

[5-1] Benjamín Rollheiser, 90’ +4’