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ItalianoIt was the game that would decide the lead, and it decided it clearly. In Fafe, SL Benfica beat GCR Nun’Álvares 0-3, took advantage of the efficiency their opponents lacked and climbed to first place in the Liga Feminina Placard. For Paulo Tavares’ side it was the first defeat of the season, and also the first time they failed to score in six matchdays, after arriving at this round with the best attack in the competition.
It was the game that would decide the lead, and it decided it clearly. In Fafe, SL Benfica beat GCR Nun’Álvares 0-3, took advantage of the efficiency their opponents lacked and climbed to first place in the Liga Feminina Placard. For Paulo Tavares’ side it was the first defeat of the season, and also the first time they failed to score in six matchdays, after arriving at this round with the best attack in the competition.
First half
Maria Martins sent the reds out with Ana Catarina, Fifó, Andreza Queiroz, Maria Pereira and Janice in the starting five, and the choice paid off early. In the 6th minute, after a first shot by Fifó, Angélica Alves opened the scoring at 0-1.
Nun’Álvares responded and took the game into a contested, physical territory, but it was Benfica who scored again. In the 13th minute, Maria Pereira made it 0-2 from a free kick, and the first half, balanced in possession but unbalanced in finishing, ended with a two-goal gap.
Just before the break came the play that could have changed the course of the afternoon. In the 20th minute, Benfica committed their sixth accumulated foul and Fifó was cautioned; from the direct free kick with no wall, Dinha shot wide, and Nun’Álvares let slip the best chance they had to get into the game.
Second half
The second half brought fight and chances for both sides, but no goal for a long time. Andreza Queiroz was cautioned in the 31st minute and Sara Ferreira in the 35th, and in the 38th minute Nun’Álvares switched to a 5v4, an all-or-nothing gamble with the score still two goals down. The outcome was the opposite of what they wanted: in the 40th minute, Janice took advantage of the space left by the opponents’ extra player and sealed the result at 0-3.
Analysis
SL Benfica won for the reason the club itself pointed to at half-time: efficiency. They scored two goals in an evenly contested first half, survived the 10-metre free kick that could have reopened the game and punished their opponent’s risk in the final minute. GCR Nun’Álvares lacked precisely the opposite: the ability to turn into goals the several chances they created, especially in a second half in which, as acknowledged in the match report itself, the ball refused to go in. The 5v4 thrown in at 38 minutes was the last card of a side that had already spent all the others. Competitively, Benfica entered this matchday with 13 points and leave it with 16, in sole first place and with only two goals conceded in six games; Nun’Álvares stay on 13, drop to third and lose the unbeaten status they had carried since the start of the championship.
Novasemente GD x Santa Luzia FC is still to be played. Benfica return to action on Saturday, 7 November, at 17:00, hosting Atlético CP at Pavilhão n.º 2 da Luz.
Player of the Match: Maria Pereira (SL Benfica)
The free-kick goal at 13 minutes, which put Benfica ahead by two in a game that had been very balanced until then and never really left that pattern. It is the third consecutive matchday in which she has scored, after the hat-trick against Santa Luzia and the brace against Novasemente, and this time her goal secured the result that took the reds to the top.
Photo - @sgil_sports