By Melody Gross 
Benfica beat Boavista 2-0 on Monday, concluding the sixth round of the championship, achieving their first away win in the 2024/25 edition. Pavlidis opened the scoring in the 11th minute, before Kokcu scored the second goal in the 31st minute, both with the help of Aktürkoglu. Arthur Cabral completed the score in the 90+2 minute. The Reds thus ascend to the podium in the league, behind Sporting and Porto, while Boavista is the first team above the waterline.
With options limited, Cristiano Bacchi made two changes to the starting eleven, bringing on the injured Abascal and Gonzalo Miguel to make way for Joel Silva and Joao Barros.
On Benfica's side, with Bah also injured, Bruno Lage opted to bring on Thomas Araujo in place of young Kabore, who also moves into midfield, with Orsnes starting, instead of Rolheiser.
The first shot of the match was for Salvador Agra, after just 3 minutes, after a corner from… Benfica. Kokcu and Aktürkoğlu hesitated to shoot, Boavista recovered, and in a quick counterattack, Salvador Agra shot from medium range, wide of Trubin's goal. Benfica responded in the 7th minute, as Di Maria put the ball in the penalty area, Onyemaechi missed the cut and Aktürkoğlu tried to shoot the hat-trick, but Tommy Souza saved it with a good tackle.
Turkish view
In the 10th minute, Pavlidis sent in Coco, who shot from the front into the Tomi defence, before the opening goal, the following minute: Akturkoglu's cross, on the left, close to the line and already inside the area, hit Pavlidis, making it 1-0.
In the 17th minute, Pavlidis made an incredible mistake, running clear inside the area and hitting the post, but the shot was already ruled out for offside by Tomas Araejo, who had crossed. The next minute, Vukotic tested his goal, as Trubin defended, before Seba Peres, in the 26th minute, fired a shot past the Benfica goalkeeper and into the net.
Turkish to record
Half an hour later, Akturkoglu sent another cross from the right towards Pavlidis, where Tomi denied Onyemaichi an own goal, a move that the Turkish winger ruled out for offside. However, it was 2-0 seconds later, with a superb mid-range strike from Kokcu, which hit the post and beat young Tommy.
In the 39th minute, Akturkoglu came very close to making it 3-0 with a powerful right-footed shot after a pass from Di Maria into the side netting of Boavista's goal.
The hat…Turkish
In the second half, which started without changes, Benfica came back with everything, and after Pavlidis shot in the 47th minute to win a corner, Tomas Araejo headed in a beautiful save from Tomi. More so when reloading, he stopped Otamendi's shot. Two attempts from Di Maria followed, at 54 minutes and 55 minutes wide with the ball still hitting Aktürkoglu, before leaving.
After Boavista's first move, Aktürkoğlu ran behind Pedro Gomes and tried to pass Tommy Souza but the shot went just over the bar. In the 69th minute, after Boznik's shot was past Antonio Silva, it was Joel Silva who intercepted the ball and prevented Di Maria from being one-on-one with Tommy.
Time to update
In the 71st minute, Bruno Lage removed Akturkoglu, and launched another reinforcement, Amdouni, re-establishing the left wing of the attack.
With a quarter of an hour to go, Bacchi brought on Marco Ribeiro for Camara, before resting Bruno Lage Di Maria and Orsnes, with Prestiani and Leandro Bareiro on the pitch. In the 81st minute, Pedro Gomes and Vukotic left, for Thomas and Augusto Dabo. In the 86th minute, Dabo himself tried to scare the goalkeeper after a corner kick with a header towards Tropin. Two minutes after the 90th minute, Kaboré and Arthur Cabral came on to replace Thomas Araujo and Pavlidis.
And it was Arthur Cabral, in the 90+2 minute, and within five minutes of stoppage time, who closed the scoring, taking advantage of a mistake by Bruno Onyemaechi to collide with Tommy's face and score the goal.
In the management's rhythm, and with the match decided early, Benfica achieved its first away win, and the third in a row for Bruno Lage at the head of the Reds, who are now on the podium in the league, behind Sporting and Porto.
Man of the Match: Kokcu (Benfica)
