Following on from their 3-0 hammering of
Benfica in the Portuguese Cup last week, Porto produced another dominant
performance to leave third-placed Benfica trailing them by seven points.
Sporting are level with Porto on 44 points from 16 games.
Porto fans were left hollering as Fabio Vieira
and Pepe both scored within three first-half minutes to hand them a 2-0 lead.
Vieira latched onto a loose ball to fire home
in the 34th minute, while Pepe doubled the lead by heading in a cross from
Otavio.
Roman Yaremchuk pulled one back for Benfica
right after the break but once defender Andre Almeida was sent off for a foul
on Otavio in the 49th minute, their hopes of scoring any further goals were all
but over.
The hosts completed the rout when Mehdi Taremi
scored in the 69th minute.
“We entered the match with the same mentality
from last week and wanted to pound them from the beginning. We controlled the
game and could have scored more,” man-of-the-match Otavio told reporters.
It was Benfica’s first game under caretaker
manager Nelson Verissimo, who took charge earlier this week after a player
revolt led to the dismissal of Jorge Jesus.
Porto are now unbeaten in eight matches
against Benfica in all competitions.
