Benfica score seven at Casa Pia, and Pavlidis’s hat-trick took seven minutes
Benfica’s first league win of the season was a 0-7 rout in Rio Maior, with Vangelis Pavlidis scoring three times between the 47th and the 54th minute.
Aug 18, 2026
Benfica went to Rio Maior on Monday night with one point from their opening game and left having scored seven. Casa Pia were beaten 0-7 on 17 August, two goals down inside a quarter of an hour and five more behind by the 61st minute.
Two goals before anyone had settled
Gianluca Prestianni scored in the third minute. Rafa Silva made it two in the 14th, and the shape of the night was set by then. Marco Silva’s side finished with 20 shots to Casa Pia’s three and 64 per cent of the ball, and 2-0 at half-time was kind to the hosts.
Pavlidis needed seven minutes
Vangelis Pavlidis scored in the 47th minute, again in the 49th and a third time in the 54th. Seven minutes from first goal to third equals the quickest hat-trick in the Portuguese top flight this century, matching the one Simon Banza scored for Braga against Portimonense in 2023.
Lawrence Ofori put through his own goal in the 58th minute to make it six. Jhon Duran got the seventh in the 61st, four weeks after joining on a season-long loan from Al Nassr that carries a 30 million euro option to buy. He is 22 and Benfica are the seventh club of his career, a list that already includes Chicago Fire, Aston Villa, Fenerbahce and Zenit St Petersburg.
Casa Pia’s evening ended with Kaly sent off two minutes into stoppage time.
A week of questions, answered in an hour
Benfica opened the season behind closed doors at the Estadio da Luz, where they twice led newly promoted Academico de Viseu and were pegged back both times in a 2-2 draw. Marco Silva spent the following week explaining it. His side now have four points from two games and sit fourth, two behind Arouca, Porto and Maritimo, who have all won twice.
Casa Pia have lost both. They went down 1-0 at Maritimo in the opening round and are bottom of the table on no points with a goal difference of minus eight, having conceded seven of those in their first home game of the season. They play at the Estadio Municipal de Rio Maior, north of Lisbon, rather than in the capital.
Benfica’s next assignment is a bigger one. They host AGF Aarhus at the Luz on Thursday in the first leg of a Europa League play-off, with the return in Denmark on 27 August and a place in the league phase on it.