Second-half goals from Kostas Mitroglou, Jonas and Nelson Semedo ensured that hosts Benfica beat Estoril Praia 4-0 in the Portuguese Primeira Liga this evening.
Benfica started the game in a positive fashion as Mitroglou linked up well with Jonas in the opening stages, but they were unable to get past a resolute Pawel Kieszek in the Estoril goal.
Leandro Chaparro appeared in productive form and he produced a standout ball into the path of lone forward Leo, who could not beat Julio Cesar despite finding himself with time and space inside the area.
The away side came out of the blocks aggressively in the second half, and Anderson Luiz went into the book early on for a rather robust challenge in the 48th minute.
The Lisbon club found very little happening in front of goal, but they had frontman Mitroglou to thank in the 73rd minute when he pulled off some adroit finishing to give Benfica the lead in a seemingly lacklustre second half.
The late goal appeared to kick the hosts into action and they soon sealed the three points, as Jonas converted a penalty in the 78th minute to make it 2-0 in favour of SL.
Jonas then completed a brace just three minutes later, having capitalised well from close range to turn another strike beyond Kieszek.
The scoring was not over yet, however, as Benfica grabbed a fourth in the 89th minute, thanks to defender Semedo who broke forward to round off an impressive late rally from the home side.
Christopher Dodd
