Porto 4-0 Estoril makes it ten league wins from ten
At the Dragão, Froholdt (4'), Borja Sainz (64'), André Silva (70') and Gabri Veiga (73') scored against the bottom side. Porto have 30 points from a possible 30, eight clear of Benfica (who have a game in hand) and nine clear of Sporting.
Porto beat Estoril 4-0 at the Dragão on Saturday night, which leaves them with a perfect record after ten rounds of the Liga: ten games, ten wins, 30 points. Benfica are on 22 with a game in hand. Sporting have 21.
Francesco Farioli rotated his side 72 hours after reaching the League Cup final four, and it barely mattered. Four minutes in, Borja Sainz’s shot was deflected, Pepê picked up the loose ball and squared it for Victor Froholdt to tap in.
One-way traffic
Most of the first half was played on the edge of Estoril’s box. Goalkeeper Martin Turk kept out Rosario, Bednarek, Pepê and Alberto Costa, and by the half-hour the club counted eight chances to none. Still, it was only 1-0 at the break.
The second goal took until the 64th minute. Gabri Veiga won the ball high up the pitch, Borja Sainz took it inside the area and curled it into the far top corner, his fifth of the season. Afterwards the Spanish winger said he had stayed behind at training the day before to practise exactly that shot.
André Silva came on for Samu and scored three minutes later from a rebound. Veiga added the fourth on 73 and finished with a goal and an assist. The crowd was 43,134.
Next up
Last weekend Porto won at Gil Vicente to make it nine in a row. Now the run is in double figures, while Estoril remain bottom of the table.
Wednesday brings the Champions League, where results have not matched the league form, and Sainz said as much after the game. Further ahead is a League Cup semi-final against Benfica in Leiria in January, after Benfica knocked out Gil Vicente in the quarter-finals.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Werner100359 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
