With Flamengo leaders watching, Benfica de Jorge Jesus is eliminated by Porto

Porto and Benfica fought an important derby for the round of 16 of the Portuguese Cup this Thursday. Amidst doubts about the future of coach Jorge Jesus, Dragão won 3-0 and eliminated their rival from Lisbon from the competition.

The score left the Benfica coach even more threatened in the position, despite Jesus not having been on the edge of the lawn due to a suspension.

Much criticized in the Benfica command, Jesus has been speculated at Flamengo. The Gávea club even sent representatives to Portugal. Marcos Braz and Bruno Spindel were even at Estádio do Dragão to watch the game accompanied by Jorge Jesus’ manager.

Right away, Porto opened the scoring. With just 30 seconds of the ball rolling, Brazilian Evanílson took advantage of a rebound in the small area and scored the first goal. Just six minutes later, Vitinha expanded. After the ball was raised in the area and the departure of Brazilian goalkeeper Helton Leite, the Porto midfielder took advantage of the leftovers and hit it with skill, over the defense, hitting the crossbar before swinging the net.

Benfica went down with Darwin Núñez, but the video referee stepped in and disallowed the goal for the Uruguayan offside.

Still in the first half, the third fell, again with Evanílson. The striker received a good pass from Luis Díaz and hit the back of the goal. The ex-Fluminense, however, was sent off at the end of the first stage, after receiving his second yellow card.

In the second half, Benfica launched themselves on the attack. With one more and needing to reverse the negative score, the team opened up, giving space in defense, but approached the opponent’s goal, creating good opportunities, but without success in swinging the net.

In a decisive and edgy classic, it didn’t take long for a mess to start. In the 27th minute of the second stage, Yaremchuk knocked Taremi down and, with the Porto player on the ground, kicked him. After exchanges of pushes, the Ukrainian received only the yellow one.

Betting all their chips on the attack, the visitors scored again in the 40th minute of the final stage, with a goal from Otamendi, who headed free on the second pole. The bid, however, was revised by the VAR and Benfica had another goal disallowed. Minutes later, the Argentine gave a violent entry to Luis Díaz and was expelled from the field.

In extra time, Porto hit the net for the fourth time, but had the goal invalidated for offside. Thus, the match ended 3-0 for Dragão, who qualified for the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup.

Earlier, also in the round of 16 of the competition, Mafra eliminated Moreirense by 3-1, Rio Ave drew with Belenenses by 1-1, but qualified on penalties, and Vizela beat Braga by 1-0.