Lenglet’s first booking was a foul on Froholdt, and Froholdt scored the goal that beat ten-man Benfica

Clement Lenglet’s first booking at the Estádio do Dragão was for fouling Victor Froholdt. His second, in the 35th minute, was for putting a hand on André Silva’s head, and it left Benfica with 55 minutes to play a man short. They equalised anyway. Then Froholdt scored, and the whole thing fell apart inside nine minutes.

Ten men, level, and then three down

Gabri Veiga had already given Porto the lead on 31 minutes, getting to a lofted pass from Pepê ahead of Samuel Soares and squeezing the ball over the line. Four minutes later Lenglet reacted to André Silva closing him down by touching his head, the referee produced a second yellow, and Marco Silva had to rebuild his team at the break.

What Benfica did next was the impressive part. Six minutes into the second half, Gianluca Prestianni clipped a ball over the Porto back line and Alexander Bah arrived unmarked to head past Diogo Costa. A side down to ten since before half-time was level away at the champions.

It lasted three minutes. Froholdt got in behind for the second, finishing from close range. Six minutes after that, André Silva won the ball inside the box and rolled it back for Hwang In-beom, who hit it into the roof of the net. Porto had turned 1-1 into 3-1 by the hour mark.

The runs that ended and the one that did not

Benfica had not lost an away league game since January 2025, a run of 28 matches. Porto had not lost a home league game since April 2025, and that run is now 24. Both runs turned on the same 90 minutes.

Porto have won all seven of their league matches. They have scored 18 and conceded 3, and they sit on 21 points, five clear of Benfica and six clear of Sporting. Benfica have actually scored more goals than anybody in the division, 22 of them, which is the sort of number that usually belongs to a team at the top rather than one that has just lost its first match.

Goal difference has them level on plus 15. Points do not.

Farioli’s version of Porto

Francesco Farioli took the job in July 2025, won the title in his first season, and has still not lost a home league game. Porto are defending that title with a perfect record so far. The caveat is that Porto were taken apart at this same ground by Manchester City in the Champions League earlier this month, a night when they did not register a shot on target. Domestically none of that has touched them.

For Marco Silva there is a harder question. Benfica brought in João Palhinha from Bayern Munich in August and are scoring freely, but they lost a Clássico they were still level in with ten men, and they lost it to two goals in nine minutes after the restart. Discipline decided this one long before the finishing did.

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