Sport Lisboa e Benfica v Sporting CP

Sport Lisboa e Benfica v Sporting CP
Sunday December 27th, 2026
Estádio da Luz
Matchday 16

The Warm up

To Follow

Benfica 2026/27 season to date 

FC St Gallen 1879 2 Benfica 1
Europa League Second Qualifying Round First Leg

An Aliou Baldé goal on 36 gave the Swiss side the lead in their two leg Europa League qualification tie. Rafa Silva equalised two minutes before half time as the sides went in level at the break. Tom Gaal scored on 79 minutes to put the Swiss back in the lead. 2-1 the final score ahead of the return leg in Lisboa.

Benfica 5 FC St Gallen 1879 0 (6-2)
Europa League Second Qualifying Round Second Leg

Despite coming into the second leg one goal to the good on aggregate the Swiss side were routed. Greek forward Vangelis Pavlidis opened his account for the night after 10 minutes and then couldn’t stop scoring. 2-0 on 54’, 3-0 on ’64 and 4-0 on 73’ when he converted a penalty. New signing Clément Lenglet made it 5-0 9 minutes before the end of the 90. To compound the visitor’s misery Jozo Stanić had been given his marching orders on 56’ by which time they were already 4-2 down on aggregate. Benfica progressed to face Heart of Midlothian who dropped down from the Champions League Qualifiers.

Benfica 6 Heart of Midlothian 1
Europa League Third Qualifying Round First Leg

It took just 2 minutes for Rafa Silva to give the Eagles the lead. Tomás Araújo made it 2-0 on ’22 and Vangelis Pavlidis scored his fifth goal of the season from the penalty spot 4 minutes before half time to give the Portuguese a 3-0 lead at half time. Things didn’t get any better for the Scottish Premiership side after the break. Gianluca Prestianni made it 4-0 on 58’. Tom Renaud at least gave visiting fans something to cheer about when he scored on ’71. However new loan signing Jhon Durán made it 5-1 with 4 minutes remaining and to really compound the Scots misery, Andreas Schjelderup scored from the penalty spot on 90+3 to take a 6-1 lead into the second leg in a weeks time.

Matchday 1 - Academico Viseu (H) 2-2

The former lions mister Marco Silva took charge of his first league game in Portugal since he was dismissed by Bruno de Carvalho citing just cause in a 400 page document. He failed to make the lions title winners, how will he fare with being mister of the largest team in all of Portugal? We'll find out in May. They began against newly promoted Viseu. Remember they went undefeated in the Liga last time out. 

Just 8 minutes gone when a long ball over the defence was chested down by Pavlidis and then struck first time from 18 yards into the bottom right hand corner to make it 1-0. At that point Viseu must have been fearing the worse. However that proved to be the only goal of the half. On 54' Pereira flicked home a corner from the near side from 3 yards which left keeper Samuel Soares flat footed. Game on at 1-1. Prestianni was allowed to run unmarked from the left wing onto the area and he nonchalantly swept home into the bottom right hand corner from 16 yards to restore the Eagles lead just 3 minutes later. Poor marking allowed Clovis to sweep home a cross from the right wing from 8 yards out to make it 2-2. Despite nearly 30 attempts the home side couldn't find a third and the points were shared. Fortunately for the home side there was no one their to see it. An empty stadium made it feel like Covid all over again. 

Xg 3.11 - 1.18
Total attempts 28 - 8
Shots on target 11 - 4
Big chances 3 - 2
Big chances missed 3 - 1

Heart of Midlothian 1 Benfica 1

Europa League Third Qualifying Round Second Leg

The Edinburgh side came away with a modicum of self respect as they held the eagles to a 1-1 draw at Tynecastle. Tómas Magnússon gave the Jam Tarts the lead on 76 only to see Dodi Lukébaio cancel the lead two minutes later. The neighbours progressed to the next round by the odd goal in five winning 7-2 on aggregate.