Benfica continued their winning ways in the Portuguese League with a 3-2 victory over Lisbon rivals Belenenses in Week 19 action. Bruno Lage made one change to last weekends Week 18 squad resting midfielder Gabriel and starting Taarabt in his place. Benfica got two first half goals from Carlos Vinicius on a great solo effort and the other from Taarabt who fired home an Andre Almeida header from a corner kick for his first league goal of the season. Benfica went into the half with a comfortable 2-0 lead but Belenenses came out harder in the second half and cut the lead to one goal when Lica would flick in a low cross. Benfica would though regain the two goal lead just minutes later as Carlos Vinicius would send in substitute Chiquinho in alone and he would dance around the keeper for his first league goal of the season. Belenenses though would keep fighting and were awarded a penalty when Rafa Silva would take down Varela inside the box. Lica would score his second of the game just getting the ball past an out stretched Vlachodimos but that would be as close as Belenenses would get as Benfica would hang on for the victory. Benfica will now travel to Porto next weekend as they get set to take on FC Porto in the Classico, were a Benfica win over second place Porto could put this league season in their hands.
Benfica are in action at home for Week 19 as they get set to take on city rivals Belenenses. Benfica currently have a seven point lead over second place FC Porto and will look to keep it that way.
Benfica will play Belenenses today at 7pm
WEST and they will dress 18 players from the list below.
Keepers- Vlachodimos, Ivan Zlobin
Defenders- Tomas Tavares, Alex Grimaldo, Ruben Dias, Ferro, Jardel, Andre Almeida,
Midfielders- Chiquinho, Pizzi, Taarabt, Franco Cervi, Julian Weigl, Rafa Silva, Gabriel
Forwards- Carlos Vinicius, Seferovic, Jota
Benfica are looking into bringing home Portuguese International Dyego Sousa from Chinese club Shenzhen FC before the transfer window closes on Sunday in Portugal as they look for a replacement striker to fill the number three role with the departure of Raul de Tomas. Benfica currently have two strikers on their roster in Carlos Vinicius and Haris Seferovic and are looking for insurance in case of injury to their front two as they look to win another Portuguese League championship. Benfica were linked with Sousa during the summer transfer window just before he was sold by Braga to Shenzhen for a bargain price of €5.4M. Benfica are in talks with Shenzhen about a loan for Sousa who has appeared in 10 games this season for the Chinese club, scoring on three occasions while also adding three helpers in 778 minutes of action. The 30 year old dual citizen is very famaliar with Portugal after first arriving in 2007 to join Madeira club Nacional. Sousa earned his first two caps with Portugal in 2019 and was a member of Portugal's Nations League 2019 winning squad. Sousa has appeared in 112 first division games during his Portugal playing career, scoring 42 goals and finished fifth last season in league scoring with 15 goals.
