THE Benfica had to pull out all the stops to defeat the Alverca team, who presented themselves this Monday with a ‘daring’ attitude at the Estádio da Luz, in a game counting for the tenth round of the I League.
The Eagles actually won 1-0, after Marco Silva changed six members of the eleven that beat Gil Vicente, 4-1, in the League Cup quarter-final round, by introducing Samuel Soares, Alexander Bah, Tomás Araújo, Aursnes, Gianluca Prestianni and Vangelis Pavlidis to the starting team.
Before the starting whistle, there was a presentation of the Benfica’s new commemorative equipmentwho returned to the 80s with the clothes he wore at this meeting.
The game started with a lot of change in both goals, with Alverca going all out to try to score first at their opponent’s home, and they even managed to do so, to celebrate for just a few moments.
This is because, in the 25th minute, Yaya Bodjang put the ball in the back of Samuel Soares’ net to put the visiting team in celebration, but ended up having the shot canceled, due to a five centimeter offside.
The warning was thus given, with Benfica going into the break with a goalless score and with some difficulties in creating dangerous opportunities in the first half.
At the restart, Andreas Schjelderup gave way to Claudio Echeverri and the Argentine only needed five minutes to wreak havoc on Alverca’s defense.
In the 50th minute, Sergi Gómez did not measure well and completely ‘swept’ the midfielder on loan from Manchester City, who won a penalty for the red team.
Vangelis Pavlidis scored the penalty won by Claudio Echeverri, in the 51st minute, after being completely ‘swept’ by Sergi Gómez, the captain of the Ribatejo team, at Estádio da Luz.
Davide Rodrigues Araújo | 21:38 – 02/11/2026
During the conversion, Hellenic striker Vangelis Pavlidis did not tremble and even managed to score the first goal of the match, leaving Estádio da Luz in ecstasy.
Benfica began to have more space behind Alverca’s strong defense, whose strategy was well outlined by Sérgio Ferreira, who wanted to press high in the Eagles’ build-up phase in an attempt to score and tie the match.
And he even had several occasions to do so, namely through Chiquinho, who in three minutes left a collective sigh coming from the stands of Estádio da Luz, close to the start of the last quarter of an hour of the game.
Until the end of the match, Alverca continued to insist, even placing Benfica against the ropes, with a siege being laid on the Reds’ penalty area, but they were unable to take advantage of the chances created.
With this result, Benfica is now five points behind FC Porto and with a margin of four over Sporting and Santa Clara, remaining isolated in second place in the I League table, with 25 points added in 10 matches.
Alverca maintains tenth place in the standings, with a total of 11 points gained so far, currently being closer to the relegation places (4) than the Europeans (9).
Champion and leader FC Porto will visit Santa Clara, currently fourth placed, on December 5th, in the 13th round of the 1st Portuguese Football League, the Club League announced today.
Lusa | 18:49 – 02/11/2026
