Porto 3-1 Benfica: Farioli's champions make it seven from seven and go five points clear. Liga Portugal results and table

Porto beat Benfica 3-1 in the Clássico at the Estádio do Dragão on Sunday night and have now won all seven of their Liga Portugal games. Francesco Farioli's side, the reigning Portuguese champions, are top on their own with 21 points: five clear of Benfica and six ahead of Sporting CP and Santa Clara. Benfica had gone 55 league games without defeat; their last loss was a 3-1 defeat at Casa Pia on 25 January 2025.

The game turned on 35 minutes, with Porto 1-0 up through Gabri Veiga: a second yellow for Clément Lenglet and Benfica down to ten. Alexander Bah equalised on 51, then Victor Froholdt and Hwang In-beom scored within six minutes of each other, both set up by André Silva, the striker who played for AC Milan in 2017-18. On the Clássico, our call was at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.

On Saturday Sporting CP let a 2-0 lead slip against Arouca, and on Sunday Santa Clara held Braga to a goalless draw: those are the two games out of nine where our call was wrong, and we explain why below.

Liga Portugal results: every game of matchday seven

Saturday 19 September

• Gil Vicente 1-1 Marítimo — Gil Vicente: Murilo 7'. Marítimo: Israel Ayuma 90+3'. Here our call was fewer than four goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.

• Nacional 0-4 Famalicão — Famalicão: Georgios Koutsias 7', 40', Sorriso 13', 67'. Matheus Dias (Nacional) sent off in the 77th minute for a second yellow. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.

• Alverca 1-0 Rio Ave — Alverca: Dawda Camara 3'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.

• Sporting CP 2-2 Arouca — Sporting CP: Gonçalo Inácio 3', Luis Javier Suárez 17'. Arouca: José Fontán 81' (pen.), Dylan Nandín 87'. Zeno Debast (Sporting CP) sent off in the 54th minute. Here our call was the away side to score no more than once, confidence 7 out of 10: wrong.

Sunday 20 September

• Estrela da Amadora 0-2 Académico de Viseu — Académico de Viseu: André Clóvis 10', 24'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.

• Vitória Guimarães 1-1 Moreirense — Vitória Guimarães: Toni Borevković 90+6'. Moreirense: Tiago Andrade 52'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.

• Estoril 1-2 Casa Pia — Estoril: Ricard Sánchez 70'. Casa Pia: Selvi Clúa 72', Benjamin Pauwels 89'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.

• Santa Clara 0-0 Braga — No goals. Here our call was the away side to score, confidence 6 out of 10: wrong.

• Porto 3-1 Benfica — Porto: Gabri Veiga 31', Victor Froholdt 54', Hwang In-beom 60'. Benfica: Alexander Bah 51'. Clément Lenglet (Benfica) sent off in the 35th minute for a second yellow. Here our call was at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.

Liga Portugal table after matchday seven

Porto also have the meanest defence (three conceded); Benfica are second on their own with 16 and have scored the most goals (22). Sporting CP and Santa Clara are level on 15 and, with Porto, are the only unbeaten sides. Arouca, Braga and Académico de Viseu have 11 each, but Braga have a game in hand, and it is against Gil Vicente. Estrela da Amadora have 10; Gil Vicente (also with a game in hand), Alverca, Marítimo and Moreirense have 8. Famalicão have 7, Vitória Guimarães 5, Nacional, Rio Ave and Casa Pia 4. Estoril are bottom on their own with 2 points, the only side still without a win. This weekend Famalicão and Casa Pia both won a league game for the first time: Famalicão 4-0 at Nacional, Casa Pia 2-1 at Estoril, with Benjamin Pauwels scoring on 89 minutes.

Porto 3-1 Benfica: the goals and the Lenglet red

In front of a crowd of 49,560, with Miguel Nogueira refereeing, Benfica made the stronger start: on 18 minutes Pablo Rosario cleared a Bah shot off the line. On 31 Bednarek found Pepê, who played Veiga in behind from the left; one on one with Samuel Soares, Veiga beat him. Lenglet, booked on 25 minutes for a foul on Froholdt, caught André Silva with his hand on 35 and got a second yellow.

On 38 minutes Marco Silva took off Sudakov for a defender, Alessandro Circati, and Farioli replaced Veiga, booked since the fifth minute, with Hwang. There was a commotion near the dugouts during the changes and the referee sent off one man from each bench: Ricardo Rocha, Marco Silva's assistant, and Porto team manager Rui Correia. Ten-man Benfica levelled on 51 through a Bah header from a Prestianni cross. Three minutes later André Silva laid it off in the box for Froholdt, who drilled it low across goal; on the hour he set up Hwang, who found the top corner.

Porto had 20 shots, 7 on target, to Benfica's 12 and 3, although Benfica had more of the ball even with ten men: 55% to 45%.

Farioli explained the Veiga change: the player had had spasms in his leg in the days before the game, and the night before the head of physiotherapy, Álvaro, stayed at his house until midnight to get him ready. During the game the staff decided to take him off. Hwang, his replacement, turned 30 on Sunday and scored his first goal for Porto. On 85 minutes Samu Aghehowa returned after seven months out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, and Oskar Pietuszewski also made his return.

Seven from seven, just like last season

Porto have beaten Alverca, Rio Ave, Arouca, Académico de Viseu, Moreirense, Casa Pia and Benfica in turn, scoring 18 and conceding 3. Counting the 1-0 win over Santa Clara on the final day of last season, that is eight straight league wins. A year ago Farioli's side also won their first seven, then drew 0-0 with Benfica in the eighth. The unbeaten record is in the league only: on 8 September Porto lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City in the Champions League, a game in which our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.

Farioli said the title race is still a long one, against two clubs who together have spent more than 200 million in the transfer market. He did not name them, but the question was about the two Lisbon rivals.

Benfica, four days after San Siro

Benfica came into the game off Wednesday's 2-0 win over AC Milan in the Europa League, with goals from Lukebakio and Kaminski (our report from San Siro); at San Siro our call was at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct. At the Dragão Marco Silva made seven changes: only Tomás Araújo, Aursnes, Palhinha and Sudakov kept their places, and Samuel Soares replaced Trubin in goal. Lukebakio came on after 74 minutes; Kaminski did not play.

The run that ended was 55 league games, 40 wins and 15 draws. It is not their first defeat of the season, though: on 23 July Benfica lost 2-1 at St Gallen in Europa League qualifying. Aursnes, captain at the Dragão, said afterwards that it was already hard eleven against eleven and the sending-off changed the game, but that the title is not decided.

Afterwards, the talk was about referees

Farioli had raised the subject: on 12 September he spoke of strange things in the officiating. On Sunday night he said nothing strange had happened this time and everything had gone well.

Marco Silva would not discuss the red card: «Em relação à expulsão, eu não vou fazer qualquer comentário» (I will not comment at all on the sending-off). He said Benfica had lost the game themselves and the blame lay with his team, that the first goal was avoidable and that his players need more emotional balance, provocation or not. Asked about Farioli's comments, he said he comes from a different culture and spoke about Portuguese football in general: «Aqui, infelizmente, consegue-se condicionar árbitros antes dos jogos, depois dos jogos, durante a semana, de toda a forma e mais alguma, e por vezes dá resultado» (here, unfortunately, you can put pressure on referees before games, after games, during the week, in every possible way, and sometimes it works). He then said he did not want to get into it and told reporters to ask Farioli.

Benfica president Rui Costa did not dispute Lenglet's red: after a yellow, he said, a player cannot risk a gesture like that. He argued, though, that it was a light blow to the back of the head rather than the face, and criticised the disciplinary standards: «Há uma dualidade tremenda e o Benfica foi extremamente punido nisso» (there is a huge double standard, and Benfica have been hit extremely hard by it).

The Italian threads: André Silva, Giménez, Circati and Lukebakio

Farioli was not the only Italian connection at the Dragão. André Silva, the former AC Milan striker with the two assists, rejoined Porto on a free from Elche in the summer. On the bench sat Santiago Giménez, on loan from Milan until 30 June 2027 with an option to buy that can become an obligation; he did not come on. Circati, Benfica's first change after the red card, was born in Fidenza in Italy but plays for Australia, and joined Benfica from Parma on 19 August.

Lukebakio, meanwhile, heads for Rome: he is in Mark van Bommel's 28-man Belgium squad, who face Italy at the Stadio Olimpico on 25 September at 7.45pm UK time in the Nations League. For that one, our call is at least two goals, confidence 7 out of 10.

Sporting CP 2-2 Arouca: two up, then Debast's red

At the Alvalade on Saturday night Rui Borges's Sporting CP were 2-0 up after 17 minutes through Gonçalo Inácio and Luis Javier Suárez. On 54 Zeno Debast was shown a straight red for a studs-up challenge on Rukavina in midfield, and three minutes later Rui Borges took off the winger Irankunda for a defender, Eduardo Quaresma. Around the 78th minute it was Quaresma who stood on Barbero in the box: the referee, David Silva, had waved play on, VAR sent him to the monitor and José Fontán scored the penalty on 81. On 87 Dylan Nandín, on for a minute, equalised for Vasco Seabra's Arouca.

It is Sporting CP's third draw in seven games and their second in a row, and their own fans booed them off at the Alvalade. Rui Borges after the game: «Há um jogo até à expulsão e há um jogo depois da expulsão» (there was a game up to the sending-off and a game after it). And on the booing: «O que é certo é que já perdemos seis pontos e é natural a insatisfação, tanto dos adeptos como a nossa» (we have already dropped six points and it is natural for the fans, and for us, to be unhappy). Debast apologised to the supporters in an Instagram story and took the blame. Sporting CP have 15 points, level with Santa Clara.

Here our call was the away side to score no more than once, confidence 7 out of 10: wrong. For 80 minutes Arouca had not scored, and in the first half Sporting CP had 61% of the ball and 1.03 expected goals to 0.36. After the red card Sporting CP sat deep: in the second half, which includes nine minutes at eleven against eleven, Arouca had 9 shots to 5, with 1.72 expected goals to 0.25. Our call rested on Sporting CP controlling the game, and they did, until the sending-off.

Santa Clara 0-0 Braga: one shot on target for Braga

Petit's Santa Clara are unbeaten, with four wins and three draws, and have conceded 4 in seven games; Petit said his side wanted to get to 17 points and could have won. Here our call was the away side to score, confidence 6 out of 10: wrong. Carlos Vicens's Braga managed one shot on target, with 0.50 expected goals, and have scored 7 in six games. Before the game Vicens had already talked about the lack of sharpness in the box that has dogged his side for weeks.

Our match calls: 7 out of 9

We had a call on each of the nine games: 7 right and 2 wrong, none voided. The misses are Sporting CP against Arouca, turned by Debast's red card, and Santa Clara against Braga, where Braga did not score. One of the correct ones was tight: we said fewer than five goals in Nacional against Famalicão, and there were four. The four Saturday results are already settled on the site; the five from Sunday we have counted ourselves from the 90-minute score, and they will appear on the site once settled.

Player calls

We published two, and neither has been settled on the site yet: Leandro Barreiro of Benfica to commit at least one foul in Porto v Benfica, confidence 6 out of 10, and David Sousa of Casa Pia to commit at least one foul in Estoril v Casa Pia, confidence 6 out of 10. The match data show Barreiro, on after 74 minutes, committed 2 fouls and David Sousa 1: we will count them once the site has settled them.

Now the break: Portugal v Wales, then Braga v Sporting CP

Samuel Soares and João Palhinha, Benfica starters at the Dragão, are among the four new faces in Jorge Jesus's first squad: Portugal open against Wales at the Alvalade on Thursday 24th at 7.45pm UK time, and our call is fewer than five goals, confidence 6 out of 10. The Liga Portugal returns on Friday 9 October with Braga against Sporting CP at 8.15pm; Marítimo host Porto on Saturday 10th at 6pm and Benfica play Vitória Guimarães on Sunday 11th at 6pm, all UK times. Those are the dates and kick-off times as of 21 September and they can still change. Our calls on these games are not out yet: they will be on the Liga Portugal page in the days before kick-off.

Every game with our calls is on the Liga Portugal page and on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in player predictions.