This Thursday, FC Porto beat Benfica (3-1), at Estádio do Dragão, for matchday 16 of the Portugal Bwin League. Fábio Vieira (34m), Pepê (37m) and Mehdi Taremi (69m) were the scorers for the blue and whites, allowing the Dragons to end the year in the lead of the championship, tied with Sporting at 44 points.

Despite not having Luis Díaz and Evanilson, two important players in the attack, FC Porto remained true to itself and started the last classic of 2021 eager to win. Three minutes in, Fábio Vieira missed the target in a great shot from outside the area, but the first great opportunity of the match belonged to Mehdi Taremi. Pepê dribbled three opponents and offered the goal to the number 9, but the Iranian forward shot straight at Odysseas almost on the edge of the small area (19m). Benfica tried to respond to the blue and white dominance and created some danger through Everton (21m), shortly before Pepê had a goal disallowed for being eight centimetres offside (22m).

Thirty minutes in, Fábio Vieira put Odysseas’ reflexes to the test, in a free-kick that was clearly going in the right direction. On the other end of the pitch, Diogo Costa shone even brighter when he prevented Yaremchuk from scoring (33m). This was the start for the first celebration at Estádio Dragão: in the next play, after a throw-in, Mehdi Taremi passed to Fábio Vieira and the blue and white midfielder cut inside from the right wing and beat Odysseas with a low shot that went between the legs of the Greek goalkeeper, stopping only in the back of the net (34m). And so the tie was finally broken.

The Porto Nation was still enjoying the first goal when the second was scored: only three minutes later, Otávio crossed perfectly for the killer header from Pepê, beating Odysessas (37m), and setting the scored that made it to the break. The second-half was also eventful, starting with Yaremchuk’s goal that reduced the scoreboard (46m), but the enthusiasm for the opponent quickly faded away when André Almeida was sent-off after seeing his second yellow card (48m), which left FC Porto playing with one more man. From this point on, the blue and white dominance gained strength again, but the minimum advantage never offers the desired tranquillity.

After Mbemba stopped Gonçalo Ramos’ attempt at the tie almost on the touch line, Pepê was centimetres away from scoring his second goal, again following a pass from Otávio (68m). It didn’t happen that time, but the 3-1 wouldn’t take much longer. Vitinha recovered the ball in Benfica’s midfield and passed to Mehdi Taremi; the Iranian forward didn’t miss this time and made Estádio do Dragão jump in celebration for a third time, increasing the blue and white lead (69m). Before the final whistle, in stoppage time (90m+3), Otávio wasted a clear opportunity to make it 4-1. It would have been the icing on the cake, but there is no denying that the blue and white family got what they deserved: the last joy of 2021. In 2022, we want more victories like this one, of course.