Aveiro, Portugal – Benfica moved to the top of the Portuguese Liga table on Sunday, defeating lowly Beira-Mar, 1-0, at the Estadio Municipal.
FC Porto was held to a 0-0 draw at Sporting Lisbon on Saturday, opening the door for Benfica to climb to the summit of Portugal's top flight.
Benfica took advantage as Oscar Cardozo's 16th-minute penalty kick held up as the winner.
The victory sees Benfica improve to 55 points on the season, bringing the club two points clear of FC Porto.
Biera-Mar remains rooted to last place on 15 points while Sporting bumps up to 23 points.
Elsewhere on Sunday, a pair of second-half goals powered Estoril to a 2-0 defeat of Rio Ave, Filipe Miguel Goncalves and Kukula scored a minute apart in Moreirense's 1-1 draw with Maritimo and Manuel Da Costa scored at the death to earn Nacional a 2-1 win over Gil Vicente.
In Saturday's other Portuguese Liga contest, Cicero bagged a brace to lead Pacos Ferreira to a 2-0 defeat of Vitoria Setubal, and on Monday, Guimaraes topped Academica, 2-0, behind first-half goals from Tiago Rodrigues and Hillel Soudani, while Leandro Salino's 11th-minute tally was enough for Braga to claim a 1-0 win at Olhanense.
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