In what was a tight affair on Friday night, two of the most successful sides in Portugal locked horns as Porto hosted Benfica at the Estádio do Dragão. However, both sides could only play out to a draw in a result that was perhaps befitting with the rivalry that comes with the fixture.
The game started out in decent fashion with both sides making their intent to win known from the onset. Both teams already had their chances within the first ten minutes but it was Benfica who would go on to draw first blood.
A brilliant assist from Seferovic found Grimaldo who made no mistake and scored in the 17th minute.
As one would expect, it didn’t take long for Porto to find the equalizer. Corona controlled a perfect through ball from Diaz and set up Taremi who fired home his seventh league goal of the season.
The game brought its fair moment of drama with lots of intensity and tackles flying around from both ends. Pizze bringing Pepe down in a ‘heated’ fashion was one of the highlights of the match. It’s no surprises there were eight yellow cards given out in total.
It was looking likely and it was inevitable a red card would be shown in the game. Taremi, who scored for Porto, made a needless challenge on Otamendi with his studs and was shown his marching orders in the 73rd minute.
With the result, both teams failed to close the gap on current leaders Sporting. Porto and Benfica remain in second and third place respectively and level on 32 points.
